Imagine transforming your life with just a few minutes of mindfulness each day. In this episode, we sit down with Ann Swanson, a yoga therapist and meditation teacher who once viewed meditation with skepticism. Through her journey, she discovered its profound impact on managing anxiety, chronic joint pain, and fibromyalgia. Ann’s story is a powerful reminder that meditation isn't just a practice but a skill that can lead to newfound control and well-being.
We also examine the fascinating intersection of lifestyle, pain, and meditation. By looking at scientific insights, including neuroplasticity and fMRI studies, we explore how mind-body practices like yoga and tai chi can lead to healthier choices and an improved quality of life. Understanding that anxiety management through meditation can be complex, we discuss the importance of personalized techniques that cater to individual needs—whether you're dealing with grief or seeking emotional stability.
Challenging the traditional view, we redefine meditation as something that can be seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. From quick, one-minute reset sessions to recognizing and managing a dysregulated nervous system, we show how meditation can be less intimidating and more accessible. We also delve into the benefits of somatic practices like dance for emotional release. As always, we urge you to share these valuable insights with others.
Remember, the strongest thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help. Please help us grow by subscribing to and sharing the Lift OneSelf podcast with others. The podcast intends to dissolve the stigmas around Mental Health and create healing spaces. I appreciate you, the listener, for tuning in and my guest for sharing.
Remember, the strongest thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help. Please help us grow by subscribing to and sharing the Lift OneSelf podcast with others. The podcast intends to dissolve the stigmas around Mental Health and create healing spaces. I appreciate you, the listener, for tuning in and my guest for sharing.
Imagine transforming your life with just a few minutes of mindfulness each day. In this episode, we sit down with Ann Swanson, a yoga therapist and meditation teacher who once viewed meditation with skepticism. Through her journey, she discovered its profound impact on managing anxiety, chronic joint pain, and fibromyalgia. Ann’s story is a powerful reminder that meditation isn't just a practice but a skill that can lead to newfound control and well-being.
We also examine the fascinating intersection of lifestyle, pain, and meditation. By looking at scientific insights, including neuroplasticity and fMRI studies, we explore how mind-body practices like yoga and tai chi can lead to healthier choices and an improved quality of life. Understanding that anxiety management through meditation can be complex, we discuss the importance of personalized techniques that cater to individual needs—whether you're dealing with grief or seeking emotional stability.
Challenging the traditional view, we redefine meditation as something that can be seamlessly integrated into our daily lives. From quick, one-minute reset sessions to recognizing and managing a dysregulated nervous system, we show how meditation can be less intimidating and more accessible. We also delve into the benefits of somatic practices like dance for emotional release. As always, we urge you to share these valuable insights with others.
Remember, the strongest thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help. Please help us grow by subscribing to and sharing the Lift OneSelf podcast with others. The podcast intends to dissolve the stigmas around Mental Health and create healing spaces. I appreciate you, the listener, for tuning in and my guest for sharing.
Remember, the strongest thing you can do for yourself is to ask for help. Please help us grow by subscribing to and sharing the Lift OneSelf podcast with others. The podcast intends to dissolve the stigmas around Mental Health and create healing spaces. I appreciate you, the listener, for tuning in and my guest for sharing.
Hello, hi Anne, sorry for the delay. I had to download Zoom again.
Speaker 2:
So you're my fourth podcast for the day. It started off at eight this morning. It was somebody in the UK and hers crashed for 10 minutes. Then the next man, he created one. He couldn't be a host to his own Zoom. Another girl tried to come into mine, so they must be doing some kind of maintenance today. Yeah right, something's going on with Zoom.
Speaker 3:
Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast, where we break mental health stigmas through conversations. I'm your host, Nat Nat, and we dive into topics about trauma and how it impacts the nervous system. Yet we don't just leave you there. We share insights and tools of self-care, meditation and growth that help you be curious about your own biology. Your presence matters. Please like and subscribe to our podcast. Help our community grow. Let's get into this. Oh, and please remember to be kind to yourself.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to the Lift One Self podcast and I am so thankful you're here with me.
Speaker 1:
I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 2:
Will you join me in a meditation so we can ground in our breath Absolutely and for the listeners? Some of you will be driving or running, so you'll need your visual. So please don't close your eyes. I want you to be safe and everybody around you to be safe. Yet the other prompts you're able to do with whatever activity that you're doing. So I'll ask you, anne, just to close your eyes and begin breathing in and out through your nose and bringing your awareness to watching your breath go in and out through your nose not trying to control your breath, just being aware there may be sensations or feelings coming up allow them to come up
Speaker 3:
surrender the need to control, release the need to resist. You're safe to feel. You're safe to feel. You're safe to let go, just be, be with the breath, jump into your body. Keep your awareness on your breath, staying on your breath so still staying with your breath at your own time and at your own pace. So I'm going to ask you to gently open your eyes while staying with your breath. How is your heart doing Good? Can you let the listeners know who Anne is? Hmm?
Speaker 1:
Well, I am now a yoga therapist and meditation teacher, but meditation did not come easy to me. I was the person that was like mind is wandering. I can't do this. This is a waste of time, but obviously, over over many experiences of trying things and finding things that worked for me, I've realized that meditation is so powerful, and that's what I'm here to talk about. Ultimately. I've done a deep dive into the science supporting meditation, which is just really beginning to reveal what these ancient masters have known for ages and the reason these practices have stood the test of time. I did that in my most recent book, meditation for the Real World and applying therapeutic practices to help people through different challenges of real world life.
Speaker 2:
What brought you to meditation in the first place?
Speaker 1:
I came to meditation because it was just in the yoga classes, right, I came to meditation. But because it was just in the yoga classes, right. I came to yoga, ultimately, and I would go to the class and I would be there. For you know my anxiety and my own chronic pain in college. And I get to the point of the class where we'd start to meditate and I'd look at my watch, I'd be like it is time to go. I have things to do, I don't have time for this.
Speaker 1:
I thought it was a waste and over time obviously that has shifted. But I didn't come to it for meditation, I came to it for the physical aspects of yoga and then I started to get that taste of what is it like to get the weight taken off my shoulders, what is it like to really be present and relax? And when you get a taste of it, you definitely get addicted. So that's where I am now. But I'm not a naturally chill person. I'm not a natural meditator. It's something you learn. It's not something you're born with. It's like reading. You know, you learn how to do this skill and then, once you have it, it opens up a whole new world of opportunities and and that's what it's done for me you mentioned that there was chronic pain in your college years.
Speaker 2:
Would you be able to figure for us?
Speaker 1:
So I had pain since I was a teenager and I just kind of thought it was normal. It, you know, flared up and down based off of my sleep, what I ate, you know what time of the month it was, and I just thought that was what everybody dealt with until I got to college and you know, I would go and drink with my friends or pull an all-nighter for a project, and the next day I was just in debilitating pain and yeah, friends could be perhaps hung over, but you'd look at them and they'd have so much more energy they weren't like bedridden pain like me and I was like, oh wow, this is different, I have something different here. So I've had chronic joint pain that is linked to hypermobility and inflammation. So over the years, strengthening has been a big thing for me and then keeping inflammation down. And then I also have been told to have fibromyalgia, which is central nervous system misinterpretation of signals, and so that makes meditation particularly well-suited for addressing it. I actually, when I got my diagnosis of fibromyalgia, instead of feeling powerless, like I think many people feel, because it can seem like a diagnosis that doesn't have a clear solution, I actually felt quite empowered because if it's central nervous system based, then meditation is the perfect thing to address it, as well as mind-body practices. So I knew I had the tools when I got that diagnosis and I knew I was on the right path.
Speaker 1:
So now the pain doesn't control me. Now I'm able to really notice when it's about to flare, because these sort of conditions, they flare and you start to notice in those stages where it's whispering at you and you can give the self-care and adjust, rather than waiting till it's yelling and you're bedridden right. And you know your triggers and how to adjust to become more mindful of those triggers and what. What really affects you. You know putting a with B, like I. I know that. You know eating certain foods lead to the inflammation, so I stopped eating those foods. But without mindfulness, without being in touch with my body, I wouldn't have had that information to be able to make these adjustments. So the pain doesn't control me anymore.
Speaker 2:
Beautifully said In that meditation, because I've had to live with pain too, where most of the listeners will know that I almost died 10 years ago because I had lesions in my brainstem and in my cerebellum and thankfully to meditation, it allowed me to, you know, somatically release a lot of the emotional charges that were in my nervous system that were, you know, wiring it in a way of hypervigilance and a lot of negative bias that goes towards myself and my identity and being separated from self, the big S and so in that I came to learn to love my body, even when there's pain and that can feel very foreign and it takes a discovery in that and a journey of reconnecting. Did you go through something similar for yourself with your body and how to relate with it?
Speaker 1:
I think that with chronic pain or many chronic diseases, that there's this process of acceptance, you know, and that's what meditation ultimately teaches us and eventually that acceptance actually turns into as strange as it may sound appreciation. So now that I'm, you know, older and I'm looking at my peers, I'm like wow, the fact that I was forced into these healthier lifestyle decisions has really led me on a good path of health and wellbeing that I, honestly, I wouldn't have been if red wine didn't bother me, I wouldn't have stopped. If fried food didn't bother me, I wouldn't have stopped. If staying up all night dancing didn't bother me, I'd be staying up all night, dancing every night. And so you know, it's really adjusted my lifestyle in a way that has made me a better person and healthier, more vibrant. So ultimately, there's this path, with many people and many chronic diseases, where you start to appreciate certain aspects of it maybe not all aspects of it, but certain aspects of it that have taught you something and helped you grow.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, have you been able to engage with the nervous system with your meditations?
Speaker 1:
Well, we're all engaging with the nervous system with meditation and actually even when we're not, you know, you still are deeply engaged with your nervous system. You still are deeply engaged with your nervous system, and so meditation is rebuilding neural pathways in specific areas of your brain that tend to degrade with chronic pain and with age and with anxiety and trauma. So areas of the brain that have to do with the memory, focus, emotional regulation, those areas tend to degrade when you're dealing with pain. That's why we get that brain fog. We have maybe sometimes difficulty with emotions going up and down and catastrophizing when that pain flare is coming our way. It's because, literally physically, your brain is starting to degrade in those critical areas and meditation rebuilds the exact same areas that degrade with pain and with age. So it is a direct anecdote over time to help counteract some of these effects of pain.
Speaker 1:
We think you know pain is very complex. It's also lifestyle driven, as I've been hinting to now. Mindset and lifestyle driven really are huge components and meditation has been shown to help people make healthier lifestyle decisions. After you meditate or you do mind-body practices that incorporate meditation, like yoga or tai chi, you feel like, okay, I'm going to follow my goals today. I'm going to go to bed on time. I'm going to do the healthier decision. You're just more motivated to do so. You're more in touch with your body and your needs. So that's another aspect.
Speaker 1:
Pain is very complex. It has multifaceted, and meditation approaches it in multiple ways, and one of them is working with the nervous system in a way that is progressing you, helping to build those neural pathways, neuroplasticity, that plastic, that malleable aspect of your brain. It's a good thing that we can counter some of the detrimental effects we've had from traumas and pain. So it's quite empowering, actually when you start to understand the science behind it, and that's why, for this book, meditation for the Real World, I teamed with Harvard neuroscientist Dr Sarah Lazar.
Speaker 1:
She does a lot of fascinating research, putting people in fMRI scanners and determining that you know the changes we see in their brain physically and their brain chemistry over time, and so that was a really interesting and fascinating aspect of this book is integrating the science in a way that's accessible and meaningful to people, and I think motivating when you understand the science that supports it. It's like, okay, well, I'm going to practice in a way that's accessible and meaningful to people and I think motivating. When you understand the science that supports it, it's like, okay, well, I'm gonna practice because this works. This is not just a hearsay. This works.
Speaker 2:
You mentioned at the beginning that you had anxiety and how has that changed now that with the yoga and the meditation?
Speaker 1:
So I yeah, I've definitely been an anxious person since I was probably a baby. You know, as a child I really even identified as being an anxious person and I think that that also, you know, identified the most inopportune times, from social anxiety to anxiety going to the doctor's office and getting a procedure done. And so for me, meditation has helped me manage that anxiety Similar to the chronic pain. It's not like it never comes up again, but it's in the back seat, it's not in the driver's seat, right, it's not in control anymore, maybe it's a little voice in the background. But I always say meditation is not stopping your thoughts, it's stopping believing your thoughts. So I'm not believing that chitter, chatter, that natural negativity bias that many of us have or we all ultimately have to keep us safe. I'm not believing it all the time. I'm able to be a more objective observer. So the anxiety doesn't control me anymore.
Speaker 1:
But one important thing I like to point out is some people will do meditations with anxiety and it will make it worse. They'll feel more anxious. So, for example, I tend to pass out at the doctor's office and it's like debilitating. They do a procedure. If they're not providing compassionate care, I am out on the floor. I don't know who I am, I don't know what I am, I'm just like completely gone. For days afterwards I can't sleep because of the adrenaline rush. It's quite debilitating.
Speaker 1:
And so I went to a yoga teacher and I said what can I do? And they gave me a meditation and I thought, oh, I'm so empowered because meditation is relaxing, I won't pass out, I'll be more at ease, I won't have this anxiety. So I go in there and he tells me to pay attention to my breath and my body sensations. So I'm doing these like classic cues we use often for mindfulness meditation techniques, which is really the most popularized in the research and in mainstream. So I'm paying attention to my body and I feel my heart is beating out of my chest, I go pale, I taste metal and I pay attention to my breath and it is betraying me. It's panting and boom. I'm out on the floor faster than I've ever passed out before, and so I looked into the research on this as well, as you know, speaking to many people about their experiences, and when you have acute anxiety to the point of you know like panic attacks, overwhelm, where you're like passing out, like I was anything like that then actually paying attention to internal sensations like your breath and your body make it worse for most people.
Speaker 1:
So, to your listeners, if you've ever done a meditation where you felt like, oh, that made me more anxious, that made it worse, first of all you're not alone and second of all, that doesn't mean you're bad at meditating. It just means you were doing the wrong meditation for you or for that specific situation right. So I'm a yoga therapist. I therapeutically adapt for people in situations, giving them personalized practices, and I realized that's what needs to be done with meditation. People aren't really doing it with meditation. They're like this is the best meditation technique. It's one size fits all. Everybody do it. You know my meditation is better than yours.
Speaker 1:
As the gurus you knowus begin to debate whose technique is better and ultimately I don't think there's one technique that's better, and that's why, in meditation for the real world, I dive into over 83 different techniques that you can do for specific situations, so you can try and find what works for you at different times of your life. Maybe you're grieving the loss of a loved one. That would be a different meditation than anxiety at the doctor's office, like I just described. Or you're feeling, you know, like overwhelmed from doom scrolling. That's going to be a different meditation than one that you're going to do with your children to help them manage their emotions. So all of those different types of situations are covered in the book as like really a handbook of like what do I do in this situation, based off of science and based off of the traditions, what might help?
Speaker 2:
me. It's identifying the fear, it's facing the fear.
Speaker 2:
And a lot of times in our society it's a taboo to even say I'm afraid or I'm scared Cause then people want to tell you well, don't be that. And it's like, but I'm just feeling like and allowing yourself to validate that feeling and go deeper in to see, well, what is the message that's being brought to you and a lot of times, like if we're not feeling our emotions, we're not hearing the messages and that's what your nervous system is always trying to give you all kinds of different messages from all the sensory inputs and everything else. Yet also, we have to identify that there's these belief systems and these defense mechanisms that we've created psychologically in our mind because of experiences and how we've perceived certain things. Have you been able to dive into that aspect with people when they come to you?
Speaker 1:
Well, we really have to feel it to heal it. So you want to acknowledge your emotions rather than pushing them down, and that's ultimately what meditation does in a safe space. So the example I gave earlier of noticing your breath and body that doesn't mean that's not good for anxiety. It just means when you're not in a safe space, when you're out in the real world and you're about to go on stage or you're about to get a doctor's procedure at the doctor's office, that's not the time to practice that right. But ultimately, you know, if I'm in a safe space, I'm at home, I'm comfortable, I'm at ease.
Speaker 1:
Then feeling my breath and body is great for anxiety because I'm facing what is so challenging right. It's getting in touch with you know, with when my breath betrays me and when my body betrays me, with the chronic pain, for example. And a lot of times what happens in society and in humans is we begin to mask it, we begin to push it down, we begin to be disembodied and not feel our body. We become numb because it's too hard to face it in those critical moments like I described. So we think I don't even want to face it alone. But meditation gives us that safe space, that safe, comfortable environment to be able to face it and, we feel it, to heal it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah yeah, and the feeling and the overwhelm of emotions, because there's some emotions that people haven't even felt before because they've been suppressed it.
Speaker 2:
So, when it comes up that's why there's these somatic practices and so that you're not analyzing and stuffing it right back down again it's like, oh, there's going to be a tsunami that you have to go through in feeling it.
Speaker 2:
Yet it's their empowerment of recognizing you have the capacity to feel these overwhelm in this surge of energy that's coming up in the body. Um, that have, like, so many different messages, because I think sometimes people feel very conflicted, that they think it needs to be one or the other and not realizing you're multi-dimensional, so you can feel a plethora. Because I think sometimes people feel very conflicted, that they think it needs to be one or the other and not realizing you're multi-dimensional, so you can feel a plethora of emotions all at once which overwhelms you and it's very conflicting and very confusing. Yet that's what it is to be human, because there's not just one side of things, there's. I see a lot more and more that in conversations there's missing context. It's not just a one thing, like you said, a one size fits all. It's like well, what is the context of it?
Speaker 1:
yeah, and I love the word feel because it is used in our English language at least as a physical feeling as well as the emotional feeling, and they're so intimately tied together that we can't separate them and we want to numb out and not feel our physical body when we're in pain or anxiety. But the ironic thing is, with pain, one of the best types of meditations you can do is feeling your body and actually listening to the signals, and a body scan is so helpful. But that's like the first thing you're like no, I don't want to go there. I've been trying to numb out and distract myself from this pain, but then when I start to feel, oh, that throbbing in my knee, rather than just labeling it pain, I'm like okay, it feels like throbbing, it feels like pulsating. All right, what happens if I move it a little? And I'm glad you mentioned the somatic practice aspect of it, because many people like me. They need to come to this, these practices for the movement. They need to move.
Speaker 1:
When there's a problem in the head, like anxiety, often the solutions in the body. Like you know, when we move, when we exercise, we feel better. Our anxiety or stress it's managed, and vice versa is funny enough, true? As I mentioned earlier, when there's a problem in the body, like my chronic joint pain, the solution is central nervous system. It's working with the mind and that misinterpretation of the pain.
Speaker 1:
And there's so many ways to meditate. Whether you do yoga practice to help you get into your body, or Tai Chi, or maybe it's going to the gym and physically exercising and doing that as a mindful movement or a somatic practice that you do, everybody's going to have something different. Swimming laps might be your way to get into your body, to like come into it and physically feel, and that's what yoga, the poses, are meant to do is to prepare our body and mind for meditation. So that's one tip I often give people is like get into your body, do something physical. Whether it's before you meditate, you know mindful movement practice and then you do your five, 10 minute meditation, or you know it's doing actual walking meditation, and so that was something I really wanted to incorporate in the book is all these different physical ways we can meditate too, because a lot of people need that somatic, they need to move, they need to feel it in their body in a, in a dynamic way, not just a sitting there, static, which can be quite overwhelming.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
It's exactly like when people come to ask for mindfulness tools and it's like, well, people create their own mindfulness tools of what will keep them in the present moment. Right now, there's a plethora of tools that you can use. Right now there's a plethora of tools that you can use. And I remember when I my portal into meditation was with TM, transcendental Meditation so it was the mantra and they were like, okay, well, create a space in your home where it's quiet and you know you can meditate. Yet I was like that's not reality in my life, cause I got twin boys that are five years old, so trying to tell them oh, mommy wants to meditate. Now it wasn't working.
Speaker 2:
So I would meditate in the living room while they fought and was listening to loud tv and screaming and everything else.
Speaker 2:
So I got to engage with my nervous system of seeing how it's trying to control things to make it feel at ease, yet recognizing comeback, like pulling it back in here, that that isn't danger, that isn't danger, that that might be annoying, but that isn't danger, but really engaging with that nervous system to see how there's some conditioning that we've been prompted, that it needs to look or feel a certain way, yet also engage in creating a healthy nervous system, that it doesn't always need silence, it can be in the noise and not be dysregulated, to come back and find safety in the body.
Speaker 2:
Because I think that's another thing where we can grasp on the outside of us to look for safety where it's like no, it's coming back home in the body and creating that safety within. Yet, really understanding the biology and understanding your nervous system, it's shaped a certain way. So you know, we do this comparison trap of seeing other people wanting to emulate what they're doing. Yet it's like well, when have you been the mad scientist to look at your own nervous system? Honor your own biology, to unpack you know how is it shaped, how was it wired and what does it need to really not like. It really hurts me when I hear people are like oh, I just want my anxiety to go away and I need to get rid of it, and it's like well, have you ever befriended it? Have you asked?
Speaker 3:
listen to it and it's like well, have you ever befriended it, have you?
Speaker 2:
asked and it's very debilitating at times. Yet your nervous system is trying to protect you. It's overwhelmed with something because it doesn't feel safe. So it's like what is that that it's trying to signal to get to that safety? And, like you said, there's certain environments that are just going to activate that fight or flight, fawn or freeze in you. And hypervigilance, because that has been defined as not safe, and all these different feelings and sensations are coming up. So I wanted to you know. What I'm creating with Lift One Self is like it's not meditation just on a pillow, it's like it's in your everyday, so that you can be a body.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I think there needs to be more of that in the world because it can be so intimidating. People think, oh, I need to sit on a cushion on the floor. I can't sit on the floor. It needs to be perfect silence. It's not perfect silence in my house. I need to have 20 minutes, 30 minutes, like TM. I don't have that. I can't fit that in my morning schedule. I am like I got to make lunches, I got to run around, I got to run around, I got to do these things. And so we we need to change the like face of meditation, which is what I really love. That you're doing is changing the you know picture, perfect Like. If you Google search meditation, what pops up? It's not really realistic for most of us. And the cover of meditation for the real world I really love.
Speaker 1:
I have a New York Times illustrator that did the illustrations in this book, so it's not just a. You're written, you know. It's like a book you engage with, like a picture book for adults, and the cover is a woman sitting on a subway and she's the only one that looks chill on that subway. She's got her feet grounded down, she's sitting a little taller, she is listening to something. Maybe it's a guided meditation, maybe it's this podcast, maybe she's listening to a song that's getting her to be really present, while everybody around her is hunched over their phones, scrolling and completely distracted and looking kind of stressed. Right, we tend to scroll while we wait. What about meditate while you wait? Integrate these like one minute meditations through your day to realign and reset your nervous system, like a button you pressed as a reset. We're expected, oh, just be mindful all the time. No, we can't be mindful all the time. 're going to notice, we get out of it and we need a little moment to reset, to come back into presence. And those times where it's loud around you whether it's your twin boys screaming next to you or it's, you know, on a subway or a bus or sitting waiting at the doctor's office that's actually the best time to meditate. That's actually the best time to meditate. That's like you know, like you're getting in the reps and like, in extreme circumstances, right, you're getting the best workout there, because if your brain can redirect you back to the present moment, amidst that challenge, you can do anything. That's truly what's preparing you for the real world. So it doesn't have to be silent. Actually, it's better if it's not silent and you start to watch. What does it feel like when my twin boys scream or when I have an ambulance going by? What does it feel like and how do I respond to it?
Speaker 2:
That is like bootcamp for your focus and your emotional regulation, your emotional regulation and that's why, when you know when people are in my, my frequency, they feel a calmness. Or when I'm guiding a meditation, they're like, oh my gosh, I feel so calm and it's like, well, you're anchored in my, my nervous system of that safety, because I've done so much work with my nervous system that I understand the language of the nervous system, I understand where it can take you and where these thoughts and everything. And, like you said, it's re-changing the definition because it really frustrates me when I'm going on some of these podcasts and they were like, yeah, I didn't meditate at first because they told me that my brain would be silenced and I was like, well, that would mean your brain dead. Like you don't silence, you can't silence.
Speaker 2:
You don't want your mind to silence the thoughts, neither. So it's like that separation and no longer identifying with it. So it's really, you know, a lot of people aren't able to access the simplicity of your breath or these different. Another part where I tell people to engage in the somatic is dance. Your body gets expression and movement and music can bring us into a higher state without having to analyze. So there's these expressions that get to be released in the dancing that you may not recognize, that you needed all of a sudden, but once you start doing that movement, things start to move up and you're like, oh, I, I didn't realize I needed to release the laughter or crying or stomping or whatever is needed.
Speaker 2:
Um, so I thank you for this book and what you're bringing forth, um of you know, bringing the meditation and the science together, cause I understand, I understand we're in a world that is averse to pain, so everybody pushes anything with pain away and then they're not really honoring the body, they're just numbing it and feeling like it's an inconvenience. And don't get me, I've lived with pain, I still live with pain, and it's like, yeah, it can feel like an inconvenience, yet it's honoring what you are in right now and having a gratitude of acceptance of this is your life experience. And how do I show up with this? What are the tools I can use to support the energy that I have and how to experience life in a different way than what you know the world will condition you with or lure you to say that this is the best way? And the major thing that I want to erase is that people think a healthy nervous system is always being Zen and regulated and it's like no nervous system has to get dysregulated.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and it's like you know, a nervous system has to get dysregulated. Like life is impermanent. There's changes. It's like the gas and brake pedal they you can't always be on the gas and you can't always be on the brake. You have to be able to use the two of them. And so there's this misconception again that if I do meditation and yoga, I'll always be zen, and it's like no, that's there's no arrival, and that's the false narrative. I hear people that they just want this arrival, that there's just perfection, and it's like there's no such thing as that. Life is always continuous.
Speaker 1:
Yes, the only thing that doesn't change is the fact that everything changes, exactly.
Speaker 2:
I want to bring you into a reflective question. I want to ask you to take your awareness right now and to go back to your 18-year-old self, and you have three words to tell your 18-year-old self to carry you through the journey to now. What would those words be? Oh?
Speaker 1:
gosh, only three. It works out. You know, I think at that age especially, I was like interested in so many different things and I still am. You know, like I'm interested in dance and art and anatomy and physiology and like all these things. Right, I originally went to art school and then I ultimately did the pre-med course load and worked in a cadaver lab and did the whole science thing. So like I was just so disparate and you know, it all works out. It all comes together in the end because I I traveled the world ultimately, you know, to study yoga in India, tai Chi Qigong in China, like did all of these things that seemed disparate. I was in South America teaching and then I was like wow, it's all starting to come together. When I got my first book, science of Yoga, I was like this is amazing, it all finally came together. I have a master's of science in yoga therapy and I traveled through the East to understand the traditional perspectives and now I can write about it. You know, I've always wanted to be a writer, since I was a little girl and like this isn't how I thought, I thought I'd be a novelist, but here it all came together in the perfect timing, and so you know it all works out in the end.
Speaker 1:
I think is something to trust, especially when you feel like your path is meandering. That's good. Keep following your passions, because if you do, they're going to come together in the best of ways. Keep following your intuition and your heart, even when other people are like that's crazy. I mean all my peers. They had strong careers well before me. I studied I was in school until I was 30, since I switched from art school to ultimately then doing pre-med and working with you know advanced chemistry and all of these things. So I was like a big pivot and, and you know, it all worked out. Now my friends that are had those established careers. They're like I want to leave my career and follow my passion and so you know it all kind of circles around and just keep trusting in the journey, trusting in your path. It all works out.
Speaker 2:
Are you willing to share what the intention was in the meditation?
Speaker 1:
My intention was to like deliver whatever your audience and you know you guiding that would be most interested in um, and like really pull from the book meditation for the real world, the new book, and like the parts that I felt, like you know, based off of what you were saying, the audience would be interested in, felt, like you know, based off of what you were saying the audience would be interested in. So I'm hoping that we achieved that and kind of pulled out some of the gems for them to help them through that path.
Speaker 2:
Can you let the listeners know where to find you and where to find the books?
Speaker 1:
Go to meditationfortherealworldcom and you'll find out not only how to get the book, but I have a five-day meditation challenge that guides you through the book less than 10 minutes a day, and I incorporate music that has been specifically engineered to optimize your brainwaves, incorporating nature, sounds, and I explain the science behind that. So it's it's very unique in that way. So definitely go to meditation for the real worldcom.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for that and thank you for the light that you're bringing into the world and allowing there to be a simplicity with such a complex practice, where you know everyday people can really access it and really start to engage to create that change within themselves which then creates a change for the world. So thank you, anne.
Speaker 1:
And thank you for doing the same. It seems like we have so much in common.
Speaker 2:
Please remember to be kind to yourself. Hey, you made it all the way here. I appreciate you and your time. If you found value in this conversation, please share it out. If there was somebody that popped into your mind, take action and share it out with them.
Speaker 3:
It possibly may not be them that will benefit. It's that they know somebody that will benefit from listening to this conversation, so please take action and share out the podcast.
Speaker 2:
You can find us on social media on Facebook, instagram and TikTok under Lift One Self. And if you want to inquire about the work that I do and the services that I provide to people, come over on my website.
Speaker 3:
Come into a discovery call LiftOneSelfcom. Until next time, please remember to be kind and gentle with yourself. You matter.
