The Work IN to move out of stress, tension & anxiety

Brenda Zane is a family advocate, parent coach, host of the podcast Hopestream , and founder of an online community, The Stream , for moms of kids with substance use disorder. Brenda is the mother of four sons, the oldest of whom struggled with an addiction to a high-risk lifestyle and illicit opioids and benzodiazepines for over 5 years. After nearly losing her son to multiple fentanyl overdoses,...

Everything we come into contact with no matter what it is is going to have some kind of effect on the nervous system, whether we notice it or not. Whatever our state is if we’re awake we’re in constant fluctuation.  Today we’ll talk about 3 different kinds of external regulation Chemical, Physical and Mental and as you’ll see often there’s some overlap as always when we work with the body it’s nev...

Over the next few episodes we’ll be talking about regulation. Specifically how the body regulates itself. Our #1 purpose with any stress relieving exercise or protocol is ( or should be to) to teach safe self regulation. But what exactly does that mean? What does it mean for the body? What are some of the ways that we do it without conscious effort? That’s what we’ll be exploring in today's e...

Everyone one knows it's important to keep the body physically fit but it's just as important to keep the nervous system fit as well.  In this solo episode I discuss the definition of resilience, what it is and why training the nervous system is as important to our physical, mental and emotional well being and health as physical fitness.  https://elementalkinetics.com/inquiry It’s time to...

Coaches have a powerful influence on the young athlete not just during competition but for years after. Sarah Neal, the Skating Yogi, is using her love of transformational yoga and figure skating to become a positive influence on young skaters in the skating world and beyond. Helping current and former athletes detrain body, mind and spirit from the stress of elite competition. Sarah Neal, M.A., R...

When we talk about trauma, ptsd recovery or resilience and stress management and in mind body modalities like yoga & Pilates we often encourage people to “listen to their bodies”. To do this there are a lot of vague instructions thrown around about mindfulness, presence and trying to notice things in the body but not a lot of direction on what to do with that information.  So today I want to t...

In part 4 of our 4 part series connecting chronic pain and the nervous system, Collen and I discuss the invisible nature of living with chronic pain while at the same time having it affect every aspect of life. The difficulty relating to people around us and how important it is as a patient to be heard.  Dr.  Arielle Schwartz: Welcome | Dr. Arielle Schwartz Neil Pearson's Pain Care Aware (and...

In Part 3 of our series with Colleen Jorgensen we begin with the connections between the breath and the nervous system and how we can quickly activate or calm the nervous system using the breath. We discuss how important it is to give yourself the space and grace to rest and allow the body to do the work to repair and heal. We talk about bringing more awareness to the language around pain care and...

Part 2 of 4 part Connections series entitled Stressed states. Part 2 of this brilliant interview with Osteopath & pain care specialist Colleen Jorgensen @_stillnessinmotion This time on The Work IN... Colleen explains 3 hierarchical stress states + to hybrid states of the nervous system and why we need them for balance. Then we explore simple ways that we can get back to our social engagement...

Perfectionism can be paralyzing.  In this present moment messy question of the day we take a quick look at the contradictions between success coaching and healing from destructive perfectionist tendencies.  PM2QOD episodes are short bite sized snacks of perspective to de-stress everyday culture. It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and...

Our nervous system is designed to protect us at all times from all things and because of that it is connected to every system in our body. When we are suffering from an injury, chronic pain or illness, big t or little t trauma, chronic stress and anxiety it’s easy to forget just how important those connections are to our physical, mental and emotional health. My guest today is Colleen Jorgensen, s...

Today I'm so excited to bring you a very special interview with my trainer and mentor, Donna Phillips. Donna has over 30 years of experience in the health care, wellness and medical industries. She has degrees in exercise physiology, business and holds advanced certifications in both yoga and pilates. She's an outstanding teacher. But what makes her really unique, and why I wanted to int...

 And today I wanted to take a little bit of a deeper dive into something that came up a couple of episodes ago, in our self care as self love interview with Paula Davis. One of the things that stood out to me most in that interview was when Paula talked about on complicating our self care, and about creating simple rituals that really count as self care, and self love. I wanted to speak today on m...

7 waking sleep habits to send you to dreamland Everyone loves a good night's sleep. Insomnia, sleep deprivation and fatigue are central complaints for almost every health issue. Fatigue being #1. But I think for a lot of us general fatigue is something that we simply live with as a normal state of being. It’s not supposed to be that way. Sleep deprivation, chronic insomnia is not normal. It m...

Happy Valentines Day!  Welcome and in today's episode we are celebrating this month of love with self-care as self love in the face of a beauty industry, diet and fitness culture that survives and thrives on the messages of “not enough”. I want to introduce you to an extraordinary woman who is on a mission to redefine beauty and help women navigate a world of wellness with compassion and self...

In this episode we break down 4 stages of sleep, and why they're all important for cognition, creativity, problem solving, learning, memory and stress reduction. Today, we are going to be talking about the stages of sleep. And what is happening in those stages of sleep, and which ones are more important. We just want to get a real good picture of what a good night's sleep looks like what...

In this episode we learn the physical anatomy of sleep in the brain.  We learn the the connections between  those brain structures and how they use hormones and neurotransmitters to communicate and control our sleep wake cycle and a little about how we form memory and learn new things while we dream. Resources: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/patient-caregiver-education/understanding-sleep htt...

Welcome back to our Samskara series. There’s nothing like a pandemic, lock down and isolation to make you reevaluate what’s important, amiright? So throughout this month Instead of getting all twisted up with goal setting & behavior change we’re Shifting perspective on habits. Instead of looking at behavior from outside we’re excavating the deep internal patterns of survival, tension and emoti...

W elcome to the present moment, messy question of the day where we take a quick look and current events in our culture of stress and cultivate a little curiosity. In todays episode let yourself be curious about the voices of the past that guard the gates to your safe space.   What happens when something challenges your gatekeeper? What happens when an idea that runs counter to your world view gets...

In this episode we discuss how the brain sometimes interprets the story of our lives in ways that lead to patterns of tension throughout the body and can keep us stuck in stress , tension and trauma. Brought to you by Kinetic Grace:  Kinetic Grace is a membership that integrates yoga + TRE and functional fitness to guide outstanding individuals off the battlefield of trauma and back into grace. Wh...

Present Moment Messy Question of the Day (PM2QoD)  Quick & current topics to cultivate curiosity in todays culture of stress. In this minisode I discuss how the over consumption of violent and abusive news content can actually rise to the level of trauma in the body.  It’s time to stop working out and start working IN. You found the Work IN podcast for fit-preneurs and their health conscious c...

In this episode we go beyond habit change and explore what it takes to disrupt the patterns (samskaras) that we hold to keep us safe. We develop patterns of movement, thought and emotion to keep ourselves safe. It's those patterns that run beneath all our behaviors and habits. If we want to change anything we need to start by disrupting those patterns. It’s time to stop working out and start...

This is the origin story of the Work IN Hi there and welcome to the work in. I'm your host Ericka Thomas health coach yoga instructor and nutrition specialist and now a certified trauma release exercise provider. I'm on a mission to make some deeper connections and help you shake off stress tension and anxiety to balance real health and real life. But before we get too deep into that I t...