Unstoppable Body and Mind

I love this interview with one of my favorite people, Shelby Hansen.   She shares her healing journey including overcoming decades of hip pain to run a pain-free triathalon.   Shelby is a coach for moms with Chronic Fatigue, and she shares with us some energy hacks that anyone can use to feel better in life.   You can find Shelby on her website https://shelbykhansen.com/ And download her top 3 Ene...

Did you know your personality traits are a predictor for whether you will have chronic pain or mindbody symptoms? Traits like perfectionism, people pleasing, and wanting to be liked keep the nervous system in dysregulated states and wreak havoc on the body.   For me, my personality traits were the biggest thing keeping me dysregulated and in a state of dis-ease before I found this work.   Listen t...

In this episode I tell you a real life story of my back pain and a flare I had this weekend.   Since chronic pain has more to do with fear and nervous system dysregulation, I decided skiing sounded like a nice thing to do when my back pain was uncomfortable.   Listen for how this counterintuitive approach helped me through the pain with less resistance and more curiosity.   Click here for more inf...

In this episode I talk all about the nervous system state of freeze.   This is the nervous system state of shutdown when the system detects a mortal threat.   The nervous system chooses this state as the best option for your survival, so it is not a conscious choice.   Here is an example of what you may feel in freeze: Feeling space, foggy, unable to think clearly, forgetting details, disoriented,...

In this episode, I talk about one of my favorite things to teach- having more rest, pleasure and fun in your life.   Most people with chronic pain are devoted, high achieving, hard working, people pleasing givers who have a hard time taking time for themselves.   But this concept is research based, and actually shows that when your pain or emotions are high the best thing to do is to distract rath...

In this episode I define trauma in nervous system terms, so you can have a more compassionate view about the survival states and why you go into them. Your nervous system is always trying to keep you safe and can get stuck in survival states from all different types of trauma.   All of us have had things that are more than our nervous system can handle, but some have not been able to process it be...

Today I talk all about somatic coaching- what it is, what it looks like, and who it can help. Somatic means body, so somatic coaching uses perceptions and sensations and attention to the body in order to enhance the coaching experience. Most therapy and coaching just involves talking, and using our conscious mind.  But about 95% of our thoughts are subconscious, so many of our behaviors and nervou...

In this episode I take you through a 5 minute somatic tracking meditation to calm your nervous system, and rewire your brain to create less pain!   Somatic tracking is the process of going into the sensations in the body and describing them neutrally.   This gives some space between the stimulus (sensation) and the typical response (some form of fear that leads to more pain).   When we can describ...

Today's Episode is about Pain Catastrophizing- what it is and how it affects your symptoms.   People with high levels of pain catastrophizing are more likely to develop a new acute pain, more likely for their acute pain to turn chronic.  And who catastrophize more before surgery are more likely to have complications and a slower recovery.   Here are the 13 questions on the Pain Catastrophizing Sca...

Episode #106- Extinction Bursts   Today’s topic is about part of the normal mind-body healing process- extinction bursts. When you are starting to experience some success with healing, one thing that can commonly happen is a resurgence of pain in an old area or a completely new pain. Dr Sarno called this the “symptom imperative.” In “The Way Out” by Alan Gordon, they call it an extinction burst be...

I know some of you are not on my email list or following me on social media (Why not?!?) But if you aren't, you may not have heard yet about my amazing "Founder's Special" for Alignment Academy. Alignment Academy is my group coaching program with 2 calls per week, modules, and resources for healing. Normally it's $99 per mo, but for the first 49 it will be a fixed rate of $49 per mo for as long as...

Predictive coding is like a brain's subconscious shortcut.   Predictive coding is the #1 reason for chronic pain symptoms.  Especially for people who tell me they feel calm, but their pain is related to a movement, food, time of the month, etc.   I give you a few examples of how predictive coding works in our bodies to produce symptoms, and how it can be reversed!  Be sure and listen to find out m...

In this episode I talk with Lifecoach and former client, Dr Katrina Ubell.      Today we talk about Katrina's journey as a weightloss coach, and getting out of chronic pain.    And we talk about Katrina's new book, out tomorrow- September 20, 2022!    Get the sneak peek on "How to Lose Weight For the Last Time- Brain Based Solutions for Permanent Weight Loss", and how it relates to coaching on chr...

Today I interview Torie Henderson- Lifecoach for exhausted, overwhelmed moms. She talk about how teens can trigger survival brain, but the concepts here can apply to close family members or friends too if you aren't a parent of teens! Torie also struggled with chronic pain- vulvodynia starting at age 21, then lower back pain and TMJ.  She talks about how she learned not to carry stress in her body...

This episode is all about how your brain functions in survival mode, and how survival brain actually changes your thinking.   The idea from the podcast was from a clip on Youtube by Jacob Ham called "Learning Brain vs Survival Brain."  So since it's back to school time, I thought about how these survival states even affect our ability to learn.   In survival brain you do not like ambiguities and a...

In today’s episode I want to tell you about how I coach on healing chronic pain. I merge PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy) with Life Coach tools and Nervous system regulation, for an amazing mix of learning and application into real life.   PRT teaches us to reframe and rewire the brain’s signals of pain, because pain signals are either amplified or decreased depending on how we react to them.     W...

Today I have a special guest on the podcast, Dr Aimie Apigian.   Dr Aimie is a leading medical expert on how life experiences get stored in the body and how to restore the body to it's best health.   We talk about the chronic effects of trauma on the nervous system, and ultimately the health of the body.   Dr Aimie sees all chronic health conditions relating more to dysregulation of the nervous sy...

Here is a question that I heard a lot this weekend at the coaching retreat I went to- "What if it's not?"   The survival brain will want us to focus all of our energy on figuring out all of the bad things that could happen and to prevent them.   So it quickly forms habits of what foods or activities, physical things, or situations to avoid.     The Reticular Activiating System in our brain is desi...

There's a lot of information out there if you have chronic pain! So in this episode I wanted to simplify the three main concepts that I have found most important in getting out of chronic pain or disease.   1-Detective for the Opposite- This is the best place to start, by changing what you focus on   2-Understanding and Regulating the Nervous System- Notice when your body is in a survival state an...

Get out of living in survival mode and start to regulate your nervous system by becoming more satisfied!   Many of us have an underlying belief that we need to be hard on ourselves to improve.  So we train ourselves to look for problems or flaws, rather than feeling satisfied.   But what I want to propose is that feeling more satisfied is actually the best way for you to evolve and grow!   Looking...

Expand- Contract   This is a principle of growth I first learned about from Peter Levine and Trauma Healing.   He talks about how expansion is followed by contraction, and that this is the normal process of growth.   When I found out everyone who had been with me at the Peter Levine retreat had a week of contraction when we came back to real life, I started noticing this principle other places.  ...

This episode is all about what I did (and thought) when I had a sudden incidence of severe back pain a few days ago. I talk about kinesiotape, how to handle a new pain, and all of the ways I could see it was neuroplastic despite feeling real.   Right after my back pain ended, I got sick.  So I talk to you about the judgement of myself I had with that more than the back pain.   All in all, I am gla...

I wanted to share this episode about the techniques I have found helpful in getting rid of my urinary incontinence.    As well, you can see the process of my journey- being curious, open to information, taking what worked for me, and being open to my own inspiration for new ideas.     For me, there were a combination of physical and mental techniques I used to get this result.     For fresh conten...

Here are the FIT Criteria- From Dr Howard Schubiner's book "Unlearn Your Pain".   The FIT Criteria are general ways that neuroplastic pain behaves, that are different than if pain was structural.   You do not have to answer yes to all of these, with just one there is a good chance your pain can be rewired with this method.   When you start proving to yourself that your pain is neuroplastic, you ca...

Today I have a great interview with Elle Mace, who coaches people on making peace with food and their bodies.   I was drawn to her work because of my own journey with dieting, hating my body, developing and eating disorder, and then finding my way to intuitive eating.   The diet culture is based on unworthiness, scarcity and restriction.  All of which tend to perpetuate overeating and nervous syst...