Latest / Overstimulated Moms Pod / Feminine embodiment, Womb Reiki & Nervous System Healing with a Spiritual Goddess
Transcript
- April Hankins: Welcome to the Overstimulated Moms Pod. I'm April Hankins, a licensed therapist on a mission to help you develop secure attachment with yourself, as I do the same. As we do that, our kids can develop secure attachment to themselves as well and with us. Join us as we discuss all things, science and spirit, as we discover the magic of the intuition inside of us Well, hello, hello over Simulated Momspod. Today I have Laura Lewis here from the Alchemy Room and Laura Moses Healing. And I wanted to start by just sharing how I met her and then jump into you guys getting to know her too and her story. so I went to a sacred feminine retreat that was hosted in Canton at Yoga Central. Laura was leading it and it was so lovely. She had homemade tea there for us. And she had made a special playlist where then she prompted us all to blindfold ourselves and we were gonna dance to the playlist. So it was such an amazing experience. And she also is a Reiki practitioner. And so I was able to connect with her for a womb Reiki and a massage. So I just think she is a spiritual goddess, and I wanted you guys to know her too. Laura Lewis: Ha ha April Hankins: So, Laura, thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Laura Lewis: Course. April Hankins: Yeah, so I'd love to hear you. I think when I say the phrase womb reiki, people are probably like, What in the world is that? So Laura Lewis: Yeah. April Hankins: would you like to share a little bit about like how you got to be a womb reiki practitioner and what it is? Laura Lewis: It's nothing really, I would say there's no official like class you take. So I did take Reiki a few times. I'm more organic. And April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: then I was being called, I was one Egypt. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: And in working with a different kinds of energies, I call them spiritual energies, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I noticed I had a lot of activity going in the sacral space, which is the belly, the womb. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: And I really don't ever, I really don't talk about on my if you go to my website or on my Facebook page. I don't really talk about the womb because it's a little woo for people that I don't understand. April Hankins: Sure. Laura Lewis: but it's just the space where we hold wisdom, April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: intuitive knowing, creativity. it's not just April Hankins: Mm. Mm. Laura Lewis: for making babies, it's for make it's creation. We make all kinds of plays, April Hankins: Mm, yeah. Laura Lewis: we make all kinds of creations in that space. And I just feel like because I believe personally that we carry a lot of trauma information, remembering and wisdom from our moms and their moms and their moms, we bring that forward. And it can be full of trauma because let's April Hankins: Mm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: face it, women have been for decades April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: been forced to live suppression, oppression, removal privileges, things like that. So I just realized April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: that in order to become connected to ourselves, we have to remember kind of where we came from. So that's why I like to focus April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: on the womb because we do carry so much information in that space energetically. April Hankins: Mm. Mm. Yeah. I was drawn to the idea of wombrakey because after childbirth, my relationship to my stomach area changed a lot, you know? And so I think that I wanted to have more compassion for my stomach and the beautiful lives that it created. But that can get tricky when there's so much narratives about how a woman's stomach is supposed to look. And so I just knew like, I want someone to Laura Lewis: Yeah. April Hankins: love on my womb area because my womb area is so special Laura Lewis: Okay. April Hankins: regardless of the shape of it. But because we've had decades of the narrative of what it's supposed to look like, it can be hard to Like, kind of get through that and really embody compassion and appreciation for my womb. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: Yes. And it's also about honoring the woman's body. I know that socially we look through ourselves as a as a lens of, I don't like her, I don't like her. And I actually went to a renaissance fair this weekend because it's my play period. And April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: I watched these belly dancers and I'm like, my God, they're beautiful women, but they have little, they have bellies and they're like all jelly belly moving around. I'm like, I got emotionally and I got teared because I'm like, my God. April Hankins: Hmm. Good, I love that. Shh. Yeah. Laura Lewis: I I have that belly. If I learn how to belly dance, and it's just this April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: way of embodying and remembering that all body shapes, all body types, and that a woman's body is a life-giving entity. And of course, some of us April Hankins: Hmm, absolutely. Laura Lewis: genetically carry, some of us are born a certain body shape, some of us have higher body fat than others. So learning to live April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: in and appreciate the body in a healthy way. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: You know, in a healthy level. I think it's very important again to connecting to yourself. Yeah. April Hankins: Mm-mm. How do you think about like the womb versus like the heart? Like connecting with intuition and information from our womb, which makes sense when we think about like, there's so many like neurotransmitters in our stomach too that are giving us information. And I like your point about like thinking about intuition also being in the womb and not just the heart. Do you see them as like connected or separate? Or how do you think about like your relationship to each of those places? Laura Lewis: Well, absolute absolutely I agree that because I actually was called first to the heart space. And then I realized when I started working with my own womb space and started experiencing these, I'm very somatic energetically. So I my body moves. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: And I realize it's also very tied to the throat as well. And if you think April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: about the information has to travel through the heart to get to the throat, but the oppression and suppression of the womb is very tied to our throat. Women have been oppressed and suppressed, so we don't speak our truth. So it's April Hankins: Totally. Laura Lewis: all very tied together. But the I feel like the heart is the control space of how we move through, how we navigate through, how we show April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: up, how we walk, how we talk, how we live, how we love. It's all heart, it should be heart centered when we can get rid of the ego, but we all have egos and we need egos. They kind of protect us and help us. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: survive, right? But yeah, so very, April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: very heart, heart centered. April Hankins: Mm-mm. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about ego and how like the framework I'm familiar with with ego comes from Megan Watterson and she talks about like how we all need it have an ego, need it, like you're saying. And then she uses the word soul that describes like the higher interconnected part of us and when we can acknowledge the ego but not be trapped by like the narratives or the powers that or like what it's fixated on and come back to the soul. That's where we can find like love for ourselves. others, is that similar to how you think about it or how do you think about like the ego versus maybe like what you are trying to live from or connect with? Laura Lewis: Well, the ego is like you said, it's very it's necessary. It starts to form, I believe, around the age of three, when April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: we start to realize, wait a minute, I'm not really a part, I'm not at one with my parents or whatever. April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: some of us have to learn how to navigate certain parenting styles April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: to survive. How how does April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: that little girl inside Laura learn how to navigate a terrain that can be you can't understand it at that age, but you learn, okay, April Hankins: Sure. Laura Lewis: when my daddy comes home, he never really wanted me here. So at a young age, how do I learn how to Hold space that's safe for myself. I don't want to upset him when he's drinking. I don't, you know, it just stuff like that. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: That the ego forms is a self-protection. But when we grow up April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: and we under start to go back to ourselves, which is our soul, which is minus all of the teachings, the indoctrinations, the dogmas, the brainwashing that happens from society, parents, and all the other institutions of earth, April Hankins: Uh-huh. Laura Lewis: we can turn back into that space and realize, okay. My soul is separate, you know. They we talk about ego deaths a lot in the spiritual world. And to me, ego death, I don't personally, I would say I've had a few ego deaths, but you can't survive without your ego. You just you can't. It's a part of who we are. But it's that April Hankins: Yeah, Laura Lewis: first of all, I'm vain as heck. I'm also April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: a total Sagittarius, and I'm an aesthetician. So April Hankins: Why Laura Lewis: But I understand, like I can move from a space of being vain and I April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: can go into meditation. And let's say I'm working with the spirit of Magdalene. She's very human-based. She April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: reminds me that beauty is within. It's endless. April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: It never dies because it's all heart-based. It's truth. It's love. It's beauty. It's forever. It never ages. It never dies. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: So again, separating the ego and the soul doesn't have to mean you have to die. It just means you have to understand and try to navigate through the lens of soul versus ego. April Hankins: Mm mm. And I love that you mentioned Mary Magdalene. I have like an oracle deck that's from Megan Watterson. That's all based on Mary Magdalene. And a big part of it is Laura Lewis: Mm. April Hankins: like each day when you pull a card, remembering like where you may be aligning with the ego and where can how can you come back to remembering your soul and like true purpose and alignment and interconnectedness. And of course, like we have our moments of being vain, like I'm probably gonna pluck my chin hairs before I see any human being. You know? Like I'm gonna make sure I take care Laura Lewis: That's like every other day for me now at this point. April Hankins: me too. And so like that is still part of being human, right? Yeah. Laura Lewis: we if we if we want to embody the feminine I it's to me that's not even a social expectation that's like I love being a woman I like dressing like a woman in certain situations if I you know I want to dress sensual and I don't mean sexual but just like soft and feminine April Hankins: Mm. Sure. Laura Lewis: and flowy and sensual and I want to move with ease and grace and I want to be seen as a woman. And that's April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: getting rid of the mustache and the beard for me is It's just part of being a woman. I want it there. April Hankins: Yeah, I got you with that. yeah, that reminds me of your feminine retreat. Why don't you share maybe a little bit about like what your vision is for that? If you have one coming up, I just thought it was such a great event and would love to hear more about like your mission behind it. Laura Lewis: Well, again, so I feel like my mission is hard-based, but it April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: has to come from a place of knowing how to embody yourself. So I started my own personal journey. Well, I've been on many journeys, but the latest one is returning to self. I wrote April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: a whole series of stories that I posted on TikTok. And it all it's all about coming back to self. Self-love, April Hankins: okay, very cool. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: which we've been taught is selfish. No, it's not. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: It's necessary. If you can't love yourself, how are you going to show up for somebody else to love them? Then you become the martyr. Women are always, April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: we're the martyrs. No, we don't have to be the martyrs. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: But as far as it's called the wild feminine, and it's basically just I started calling it a play shop instead of a workshop because April Hankins: Mm, very fun. Laura Lewis: it's a way you and you've experienced it. To me, it should be fun. It should now it's a work because when April Hankins: Yeah, Laura Lewis: a woman is dancing with a blindfold. It removes judgment of others because some people know how to move like a stripper and some people just stand there. And so what's what's April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: rising up in the woman who's just standing there? Resistance. Why are you resisting? April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: That's for you to figure out. I do not judge. I joke because I joke as you remember, I say, Well, I don't have a blindfold on because number one on the DJ and number two on the playground monitor. I got to keep people, you know, not running into each other, running into walls or whatever's in that yoga space. April Hankins: Sure. Yeah. Laura Lewis: So I just feel like when a woman can come back to her body. And if you remember, when we were warming up for the playtime, we focused on the womb, the hips. We did a lot of shaking and circle April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: legs because we're activating that energy to it's not a warm-up, it's really an energy activation just to feel safe April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: in your body and say, come on, girl, let's just go. Move your April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: body. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: Fall into your body, connect to your body, the disconnect in today's world is that is the problem. April Hankins: Yes, I see that all the time professionally, but just in my personal life, you know, growing up with certain, you know, even just growing up in an evangelical context that, you know, was really strong on purity culture and really just had narratives that led me to separate from my body or see my body as kind of just like a temptation. And so it alters, you know, my brain was so young in developing my relationship to my body. And then if you add on top of that, like histories of trauma or childhood sexual abuse, it's just further experiences that cause women Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: to see their body as either just like, you don't exist. I just exist from the head up, or like you're bad and unsafe. So like to get to a point where a woman can feel safe in her body, I feel like That is like the hero's journey for a woman to feel like I'm in my body. I feel safe in my body. I can move my body. I can recognize how my body's feeling and see her needs and meet her needs. so I just I love that like that's a big part of your mission because like you just said, I see that too. The disconnect is so strong. Laura Lewis: Well, and like what you talked about, women's bodies have been turned into objectification. And I talk about that in the play shop. It's like dance was never meant to be performative. It wasn't, and although it's beautiful to go watch a show or it's, you know, whether what kind of you like, it's fun to April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: watch. But the truth is the body was meant to feel life force. April Hankins: Hmm. Laura Lewis: So some of today's like twerking and stuff I mentioned, it's really to activate the sexual energy, whether it's to create April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: a child, to increase flow to the the womb, the uterus. It's it was always done with purpose and intention. And somehow it became objectified. It was for the pleasure of man. And this is not man bashing. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: I'm just talking about the progression of the patriarch, how women became objects. we April Hankins: Sure. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: were Taught to shame our bodies because if we dressed a certain way or we moved a certain way, you're asking for it. You're you're April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: wanting all of that sexual attention. And it's like I've had to really negotiate that because I've been single since I was 2000, 2008, 2007. And I realized April Hankins: Okay. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: when I would go out or I would go to parties, I would get attention, and somehow it was my fault. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: And I finally learned how to say, well, I'm not going to say it on a podcast, but it was not a kind thing. But I'm like, screw that. Like what you think of me is on you. Now if April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: I'm if I'm being blatantly, but if I'm April Hankins: Sure. Laura Lewis: just being playful and and fun and my soft sensual, silly self, April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: I can't change how you interpret that. And April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: I'm not going to shame my femininity to make you feel safe, whether you're a woman or a man. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: And I think that's something else is women, we can be one of our the biggest cheerleaders, but we also can be the biggest backstabbers. And it's that competition that's been placed, I think with intention from April Hankins: Yeah. Yeah. Laura Lewis: you know, all the systems and institutions. And we're taught April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: to shame our bodies. And when women learn to embrace their shape, you're like, you know April Hankins: Hm. Laura Lewis: what? I'm always gonna have this little belly and this big butt, and I'm gonna put a big old belt on and accentuate it. Good for you. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: You know what I'm saying? Like the disconnect happens because we're taught to shame our bodies. And then like what you said, if you add any kind of sexual abuse, assault, women will put on weight to hide their bodies so they can't be seen. Yeah. Yeah. It's so it's yeah. Yeah. April Hankins: Hm Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yeah, and so we had this amazing retreat. Do you have one on the calendar coming up in case people are interested? Laura Lewis: I do. I have one. It's going to be in Jackson called Free Spirit. It's a week from the so it's November 1st. I think I want to say it's April Hankins: Okay. Yep, I'm just writing it down. Laura Lewis: yeah, 5 30, 7 30. And I will be posting on Facebook, you know, registration April Hankins: Perfect. Great. Laura Lewis: links and things like that. And I do post mostly on my personal page, it just gets more traction. But I lead April Hankins: okay. Laura Lewis: people to the my professional page, you know. So, but April Hankins: Okay. Yeah. Laura Lewis: either way, people can find it. April Hankins: Okay. Perfect. Great. and then I know you and I talked about a static dance, and I had to share with you that I went Laura Lewis: Yes. April Hankins: to an aesthetic dance and had an experience there. And as you were talking, it made me think of that because when I was dancing there, for those who don't know, a static dance essentially they play music and everyone kinda dances just however they want to dance. And I realized as I was dancing, wow, this is outside of like dancing at home with my family, one of the only times that I've been dancing and been able to be like, okay, I'm not dancing for the male gaze. I'm dancing for myself. And that Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: was a really empowering experience to be able to say like, this is about me and not about anyone else and their perception of how I'm dancing or how it looks. And again, going back to like a woman's connection with her body, I think that's so hard to come by because so often the way that we can experience our body is like my body is an object to be on display instead of like, my body is this beautiful being that I get to experience and be with. And I get to decide how does it feel good to move and be around other individuals? So I I feel like the the play shop I got to do with you combined with this static dance were really good experiences that complemented each other in that way. Laura Lewis: And you did them kind of close together, didn't you? Yeah. April Hankins: Yeah, mm-hmm. It was pretty soon after you yeah. So I know that you did the ecstatic dance anything you wanted to share about your experience? Laura Lewis: Well, we did something at first, like some kind of touch thing. I that was a little weird for me, meaning just like I don't need to I don't I touch for a living. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I massage, I wax, I facial, I do Reiki April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: because I'm a hands-on Reiki. I do touch therapy. So I already touch. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I don't have a problem with that. But the sad part I had so much fun with. But I remember they said something about you always need consent before you April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: dance with someone. Girl, I had my back to the crowd. I was shaking every part of this body because and and if I saw somebody walking towards me, I wasn't naturally assuming they were going to ask me to dance. I didn't want to dance with anybody. I I I wanted to April Hankins: Yeah, see. Laura Lewis: just move how I move, not April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: try to coordinate your next move and anticipate. I dance April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: with nobody but myself. But and I loved watching the women and I loved watching the men, and they just were like these April Hankins: Right. Laura Lewis: free spirits, just doing all kinds of stuff. And yeah, so it's fun. The energy was really good. It was really yeah. It was very freeing, playful, sweaty. Yeah. Yeah. April Hankins: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Totally. I'm with you. If anybody came near me, I was like, I am not making eye contact because I don't want anyone Laura Lewis: Exactly. April Hankins: to think that I'm giving them consent. I am doing my own thing. Sure. Totally. Laura Lewis: No consent, no consent, no consent. Nothing personal, but just I just want to dance. Yeah. Yeah. April Hankins: yeah, you mentioned the tux touching exercise, and I'll just share briefly about that. so They often do like a 30 minute exercise before you get there if you want to do it. And the day that I went, and it sounds similar maybe to the day that Laura went, what they did is like just randomly paired you up and then said, like, just start by touching like hands and then just like basically move your bodies together as you're touching in some way. And I had told Laura th about my experience that I was paired with a guy both times and it just was very different for me and I shared in the circle afterwards that like growing up with like fundamentalist teachings about like guy girl relationships, it even felt a little bit like that part was getting activated, like, my gosh, am I cheating on my husband? And it just like showed like how strong these threads can be and that my body was communicating that. so it was definitely a a different, unique experience. But I I feel like where I've been in my journey of healing is I wanna experience different, right? Like I only know what I've known and I wanna be open to new experiences that especially connect with my body. so I was so happy to find your retreat and I definitely recommend it to everyone to go check it out on November first. okay, so I definitely wanna make sure that we talked about this beautiful story you told me about your daughter, which I just like cherish so much. So I know you have young adult daughters, correct? Yeah. And do you want to tell the story? Do you want me to tell the story? Laura Lewis: Well, I think I need you to remind me, was it when she was heartbroken? Okay, April Hankins: Yes. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: so yeah. So she's the baby. April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: And without mentioning her name, and I'm sure none of her friends will be watching this, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: she had just experienced being put in the friend zone with this boy that she had this little crush on. And she just came home one day on from Columbus and she waited for my last client to leave, and April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: then She came in and she looked at me and she she had little tears, like April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: you can tell. And I said, Well, what's wrong, babe? And she goes, put me in the friend zone. And then she's like, April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: put her little arms out and she goes, Can you hold me? And then we went and we did touch therapy. And because I have always, always touched my daughters, because I know as a child I was very undernurtured and very undertouched. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: And because I was competition for my dad, that's a whole story with my mom. So April Hankins: I see. Laura Lewis: but my girls have grown up with mama touching them, rubbing their even until middle school, like rocking April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: them, nursing them, singing to them, rubbing their backs, rubbing their heads, tick they call it tickling. Can you tickle my belly? Yeah. So April Hankins: No Laura Lewis: and they remember that, but now it comes to them in a different way because I now do it differently. You know, I April Hankins: Mm, okay. Laura Lewis: do the rocking and I do the the stretching. I just it's very Calming for me as well. It's a basically it's a nerve way to reset the nervous system. It's a nervous system regulation. And rocking April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: is such an easy thing to do, but there's a different energy when someone that you love and you trust is holding you while you do it. You know, if I'm guiding the rocking, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: they just get to relax into it and yeah, April Hankins: Receive. Laura Lewis: and receive. And she just remembers that. And then my middle one, she's like, What do you mean you got? Well, I want that too, so that I don't April Hankins: Okay. So you're telling me that never stops even as I get older, because that is what counts right now. With a three and a four year old, it is like, she got that, I need that too. okay. Laura Lewis: Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, 'cause they're twenty four, twenty seven, and thirty, so yeah. April Hankins: Yeah. I just I thought that story was so beautiful and to me is such a great example of secure attachment. Like she is secure enough in herself to know what she wants and needs. And your relationship with her is secure enough that she can ask you and you're able to provide for her in that way. And I just am like, my gosh, how many like 20 something year old adults like are aware, I need touch right now. and feel comfortable enough asking their mom to do that and then receive it and it's healing. Like, it's just like the for me as a mom, I feel like that's my dream that like my twenty something daughter's gonna come to me someday with tears in her eyes and say like, mom, I just need to be held. Laura Lewis: Yeah. And I think that's something else too. I think why I was drawn to touch therapy is again to me that's another epidemic. We are so lonely, we're disconnected, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: and we're undertouched. And because again, like dance, like a woman's body, touch has been oversexualized. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: It doesn't have to be sexual, it doesn't have to be foreplay. It doesn't have to be sex. Now, of course, April Hankins: No. Laura Lewis: it's going to be sensual because it's a sense of feeling. And if you've April Hankins: Mm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: got candles burning or whatever, you have other senses going on, smells and warmth April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: or cold, you know, like your body is sensing it because it's your skin. And of course, and then April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: like if I I do one where I'm laying down and they're laying their head on my chest, their back on my belly. Yeah. April Hankins: Mm. Mm. Laura Lewis: And I'm rocking them. So there's even a heart-to-heart connection, right? It's just all about touch, vibration April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: and frequency kind of coming in resonance with each other. I'm also relaxing while you're relaxing. And I just think that touch again has just been so removed. you know, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: it's okay to touch your child, but what about you and me? Like I want to be touched, I want to be rocked, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I want to be held into somebody's arms in their chest, and I want to feel their heartbeat. It's just, and again, it doesn't have to be even a lover, you know, somebody that you trust. Yeah. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. So lovely because it's such again, like coming back to the idea of like our relationship to our body, it's also helping a woman feel more connected to her body, right? Because she's experiencing this touch and is able to have a say in like what feels good, what doesn't feel good, and then like the co-regulation, like you're saying, you're also like experiencing that rhythm that's so helpful for your nervous system. So there's like this Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: feedback loop that's really helping both of you like feel more present in the moment. moment getting out of like fight, flight, freeze, and instead coming back to relationship and connection. And I Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: got to experience Laura rocking when I went for a massage one time, I will say. And it was just like so lovely. Laura Lewis: Although my stomach I know not to eat a fresh salad right before a April Hankins: I'm so glad you're mentioning that because I just wanted to share that when she was doing it, like her stomach was growling and you were apologizing and I said to you at the end, like, please don't like I love that you are this spiritual goddess, but you are also human who has a stomach that growls. Laura Lewis: Well, and you know, like I've been doing massage for so long that people are like, my gosh, my stomach. I'm like, when you relax and in a laying down position, especially, the gastric juices just start moving. It's like because April Hankins: Mm, yeah. Laura Lewis: now you're no longer in fight or flight. You're April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: it the blood goes to where it needs to go. So if you have, and you know, if you're hungry, that's different. But if you're still trying to digest something, your body's like, April Hankins: Sure. Mm hmm. Laura Lewis: good, you're laying down for a minute. Now I can put a little energy toward this over here. So it is very natural. April Hankins: Yeah, that makes so much sense. Laura Lewis: But that's why I tell people before Reiki, try to eat very light. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: like for me, I probably should have had just a warm soup instead of a cold salad. and you know, little protein and stuff like that. But it's just so that there's April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: no energy going to the digestion during an energy session. But yeah. April Hankins: Yeah. Yeah. Mm. Yeah, maybe talk a little bit about Reiki for people that haven't experienced it. Just kinda like what made you want to go into the field of Reiki? Any personal experiences for you or how you've seen it help people? Laura Lewis: When I started my journey, which would be 2018, I had my first most powerful Reiki session in 2019, I think January. And that's April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: actually, and I'm probably going to use a word that maybe some people know about and some don't, but the Kundalini Awakening, even she was shocked. It's this rising April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: of energy that just goes up to the spine and you know, everybody experiences differently. But April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: it kind of opened me up. energetically, spiritually, like I could feel it in my body. I would feel this tingling. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: I would feel that, and I didn't know what it was. So then I started realizing that's energy. And if I'm able to tap into that kind of energy that quickly and easily within myself, what if I practice Reiki? And like I said, I went to April Hankins: Hmm. Laura Lewis: a few, you know, the Reiki classes, but it was very put your hands here, put your hands here, put your hands and like that doesn't feel that doesn't feel right to me. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: and I'm a hands on. So What I usually do, as you probably you've experienced, is I just I always start with the crown because that is your April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: connection to source, God, universe, whatever your belief system you have. And it's just a way to open up and relax. And that's why I like to the touch therapy first, because at that point you're kind of you're just softened, you're relaxed, you're opened. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: and it's just a way to move energy. Some people think it's scary. And yes, you should know. You should know a little bit about your practitioner because let's face it, anything that can be used for good can be used for bad. But my goal April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: is not to take your energy. Unfortunately, sometimes I will absorb it not by choice. Then I have to stop for April Hankins: Hmm. Sure. Laura Lewis: a minute because I've gotten nauseous sometimes working on people's wounds because they hold so much. And April Hankins: Hmm. Okay. Laura Lewis: I have to make sure that I ground myself, that I protect myself. And even if I do absorb, my body will walk away from. the client and go my body just will start doing what it needs to do to remove that energy really quick and I go right back to where I started. and April Hankins: Mm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I I have you know people have different experiences. Some people feel like I'm touching them when I'm not some people April Hankins: Hmm. Laura Lewis: feel they sometimes they fall asleep. and that's April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: actually when I can get the most done. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: Because there's no resistance. There's no or trying to figure, what is this I feel in my leg? What what why do I feel a tingle on my leg? It doesn't matter. Now we can talk about it later. I did April Hankins: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: a Reiki session on a man and he was already naked from a massage. I say, well, just straight go straight to the massage to Reiki and keep it covered up. And for some April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: reason I had my hand on his right hip and way deep into his thigh, his inner thigh. April Hankins: mhm, mm Laura Lewis: And I started crying. He felt the need to cry, but I forgot to give him permission to cry. And but it's up for it's up to him to figure out what am I holding there? What do I need to let go April Hankins: Yeah, mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: of? A lot of people, if I work a lot on their ankles, that's because that's how you move and you shift and you navigate and you're you're following where you need to go quickly. Some people are very rigid April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: and they don't know how to shift gears quickly. If the path all a sudden seems very straight and all of a sudden you're faced with a challenge or a change, you have to be able to navigate and be flexible energetically, but the April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: rigidity shows up in the body. Yeah. Or the uncertainty, or I feel April Hankins: Mm, mm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: ungrounded, like I'm going through this relationship change or divorce or whatever, and I feel ungrounded. I don't know where to go now. I feel uncertain. I don't feel safe. I feel confused. It's it will show up in the body. So my goal April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: is not to. cure you to heal you it's to how about we just try to move that energy out in a way April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: that will free up some space for something else. So that's kind of what April Hankins: Mm, mm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: Reiki is. It's been around I think it was discovered by a Japanese woman. And it's been used for different April Hankins: Okay. Yeah. Laura Lewis: kinds of healing. Mine's more even though I can find spiritual or physical like injuries April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I tend to go more where it's energetic. Like April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: I had a client who was having a kidney removed for her brother. April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: She was donating it. And when I turned her over, which I don't typically do, but I said, I'm gonna really want to focus on the kidneys. And April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I spent a long time on one of the kidneys. I didn't know why. So when April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: we were done, I said, Now look, I don't know if you get to know which kidneys you're giving, but I spent a lot of time on the left one. I don't know why. And she smiled and she goes, That's what I'm giving away. April Hankins: yeah. Laura Lewis: So then we did a follow-up after, and the other kidney April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: was, and I know this is going to sound hokey to some people, but it was very sad. The kidney was lonely because it lost his companion. And so I April Hankins: Hmm, Laura Lewis: had a conversation because you have to understand every part of you is energetic. Your heart, your liver, April Hankins: Mm mm. Laura Lewis: your they all serve very, very, very important energetic and health purposes. And I just had April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: a conversation with it and I said, I understand you're lonely. I know you feel sad, but you have to remember that your your companion was given to give life to another human. And she could feel the April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: tingle and the movement. but yeah, I was talking to a kidney. Like, I never know what I'm gonna talk to. April Hankins: it's so great. It reminds me of there's a therapy model called internal family systems. And the whole idea is like we have a bunch of different parts, like anxious part, lonely part. and the idea is like we can have a relationship to those parts and learn from them. And so as you're talking about like having this dialogue with a kidney, that's what I'm thinking about is like not just our body as a whole, but Parts of our body also hold wisdom and information and intuition, and they actually can be related to Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Very much so. It's all our whole body is one big system. And that's, I think to me, that's the problem, not to get way off top topic, but with the medical industry, is you have specialists. Okay, yeah, we April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: do need them, but we they tend to chop us up into pieces. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: Okay, well, we're gonna give you this medication for this, but then it's gonna affect this organ. So now you have to go see that doctor. You know what I mean? Like they they try to break us apart. We're not meant to be broken, but April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: we are one system that is full of divine intelligence that communicates. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. My last podcast guest was a massage therapist, and she was talking about how our jaw mirrors our pelvic Laura Lewis: Right. April Hankins: floor. And so, like, if there's tension in our jaw, there's likely tension in our pelvic floor. And so, like, as a massage therapist, I'm sure you see that too, just how like body parts are so connected and like injury in one can lead to like pain in another. And just how Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: How connected we are and in the body trying to like compensate or protect another part. Yeah. It's Laura Lewis: Yes. Mm-hmm. April Hankins: so similar to the idea of mental health and how parts show up to protect us. Like, you don't wanna feel like that scared seven year old. So this defensive part is gonna come up to protect you from ever feeling that way again. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's sad because a lot of people, they do just blindly go into those systems of medicine or whatever. And then they don't understand. Well, yeah, you're gonna you're having a hip issue over here, but you're wondering why your other side of your back hurts. Well, it's you're compensating. Your body says, April Hankins: Hmm. Laura Lewis: we got to give the right hip a break. So now we're gonna put all the pressure in the left area. Or you get April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: moms, you get the mom hip, you know, like. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: We carry the baby on one side and then pretty soon we know we're shortened on that side. And we wonder why our back hurts. April Hankins: Yeah, yeah. Laura Lewis: It's because it's we're putting too much. We don't, you know, I never shifted sides with the baby. I just either were carried like, you know, in my chest or on my hip. And that starts April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: to create, you know, when you're not like for me now, I know to do upper body stretching and open up my chest because I do so much leaning forward, like with waxing, facial massage. Yeah. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm. Mm. Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned moms, which of course I want to touch base about because I I tend to work mostly with moms. I am a mom in the thick of like young kids' life. And so, you know, a lot of the moms I work with are overstimulated and just like busy and you're in a different season of motherhood, which sounds very lovely. You have you have time. Laura Lewis: I mean my Chrome and G yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. April Hankins: And and you also just like are able to invest time in your spiritual practices. And so I'm just curious, like, if you could even like maybe go back to Laura mom when your kids were very young, like what would you maybe say to her to encourage her? And then just to us also that are like parenting today in 2026 and like want to have time for spiritual practices and and find that most of the time we're like frazzled and frantic. How can you help Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: us? Please solve this, Laura. Laura Lewis: Well, if I knew then what I know now, I April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: would have done a lot of things differently. Now I was fortunate enough to be home. I mean, although some days I wanted to pull my hair out and scream, it was April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm. Sure. Yes. Laura Lewis: in today's world, I would unfortunately it's considered a luxury. April Hankins: Hm. Laura Lewis: so I was able to find a little time, but I was more concerned about like working out and you know, keeping my energy up. But now if I could say to the tired, exhausted mom called Laura, April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: I'm not a good sleeper. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: So I tend to be lazy. Like if my alarm goes off at 7:30, I'm like, nope, you know. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: Now when the kids were in school, I had to be up. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: So now I would ask myself or tell myself, okay, is that extra half hour that you're really not sleeping in bed, laying there frustrated because you're not sleeping? Wouldn't it have been better just to get up before anybody else gets up? Of course, again, that's April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: Depending on the child children's age, because sometimes whatever they freaking crack it on. April Hankins: Sure. Yes. Laura Lewis: but to sit with a ritual of coffee and a book or a journal or just sitting out, just watching the when you know something outside, just taking that April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: time. I actually just made a personal post on Facebook about this. Like, what would it look like if you showed up for yourself? And it can look like a lot of things. You know, folding April Hankins: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: laundry. my gosh, girl, I would come fold your line for free. When it's right out of the dryer and it just, I don't like smelly stuff, but just the warm and the comfort of folding. You April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: see a pile, it's accomplished. That's it can be a form of meditation. You know, we all April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: tend to think of spirituality and meditation as this one unit. It doesn't have to be. And meditation doesn't have to be sitting in that god-awful uncomfortable knee position, oming, right? It can be. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: Mine is not. I'm sitting with my legs extended with a cup of coffee in my hands. Like that is April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: so many, you can go for a walk outside alone with no music in your ears. Meditation, you know, or you can April Hankins: Mm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: allow stuff to move through you, like thoughts. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: You know, the monkey mind. I tell people if you really want to sit and do meditation, just take those few minutes for yourself, 15 minutes. The monkey mind, you have to train it to be quiet. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: Put a piece of paper in an open like just put something right next to you, write it down, let it go, and then go back. Because we we have this April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: idea of meditation and quiet time is this perfect eyes closed and you're levitating. That's no, that's not that's not meditation. It's I mean you know what I'm saying? So the busy mom syndrome is April Hankins: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: if you have to work outside the home. How much help are you getting from your partner? Are you doing all the unpaid labor? Are you, you know, are you in a position April Hankins: Yeah, good point. Laura Lewis: where you can ask for help? because April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: again, when you learn how to show up for yourself, you show up better for other people. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: But also when you learn how to show up for yourself with boundaries, you can feel safe to speak up in a logical way of, hey, you know what? I've been Doing this practice now for a couple of weeks or a couple of months. And I realized, you know, things are out of balance. If you have a partner, and unfortunately, there's a lot of single moms, but if you have someone, you April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: can say, Would you be able to start helping me with this just to free up a little bit more time? So we can create balance for each other. Because I also feel April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: like parents, if they're still married and they still like each other, they April Hankins: Just Laura Lewis: also kind of get lost in the the mess of, April Hankins: Yeah, totally. Laura Lewis: you know, and then the focus is always on the kids. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: You know, my ex and I, we had already made a very conscious choice that our kids get to do whatever they want up until middle school. Meaning April Hankins: Mm, okay. Laura Lewis: if you want to try softball, you want to try baseball, you want to try cheering, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: whatever, but at some point you pick one because April Hankins: Mm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: it's not fair to the family nor the parents to have to run you to basketball and then run you to football why of three girls. But you I'm saying like you pick one. April Hankins: Yeah, those schedules. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: A balanced for them too, because kids, where does the overstimulation start? It comes from April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: busy parents who want to keep their kids busy so they don't feel like they're neglecting their kids. And or if I keep my kid busy, they'll stay out of trouble. Okay, but you're also April Hankins: Mm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Mm. Laura Lewis: teaching you're setting them up for a life of overstimulated nervous system because they don't know how to just be. Play outside. April Hankins: Yeah. And Laura Lewis: Yeah, just do things, be a kid. April Hankins: think like the idea of just being like keeps coming up in what I'm reading and that is so hard for us today. Like I want to be thinking and doing and to actually just be is very hard. Even like I like that you made the point that meditation doesn't have to just be sitting still, 'cause that doesn't really that might not work for every nervous system or those who have neurodivergence. Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: And so like even sitting outside and like just enjoying, especially now the fall leaves, like, my gosh, they're such a treat. And also I wanted to tell Laura Lewis: Uh-huh. April Hankins: you because I know you you have at least one cat, but we found an outdoor cat and she is the love of my life. Like she is so Laura Lewis: Awww. April Hankins: sweet. Like she's just always purring. She's always happy. She's like the one calm being in my world. And I just so like holding her is even for me like a form of just being and meditating and like Laura Lewis: Yes. April Hankins: the way that she it's just like always wants to be with me reminds me of I can relate to myself in that way like this secure attachment that like I'm worthy of like affection and feeling safe seen and soothed. And so Just like this idea of being, instead of like our to-do list, which is always a mile long, right? Like there's so many things that we feel like Laura Lewis: Yes, yes. April Hankins: we could be or should be doing, a reason to not just be, and giving ourselves permission to just be, I just find is is very challenging in the clients that I work with and in myself. but what I have really experienced is that when I can pause to just be and do some sort of like regulation whatever it is and then come back to the to-do list, it's a different experience of the to-do list. But that pause Laura Lewis: Anna, yes. April Hankins: is like so hard to make happen. Laura Lewis: Yeah. It's almost like you need to put the pause on the to-do list. Okay, I just did these two things. Pause. And you know, I love what you said about the cat. April Hankins: Yes. Yes. Laura Lewis: I get kind of itchy, you know, hair and stuff, but just listening to the purr, that right there is a a regulation because April Hankins: Mm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: in God's creation there are vibrations and frequencies, and a cat's purr is one of them. The bumblebee is one. You know, when you April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm. Mm. Mm. Laura Lewis: hear that, that is them saying. I feel safe. I love April Hankins: Hm Laura Lewis: you. But at the same time, that sound they make is very regulating to the nervous system. Because it is a certain April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: frequency, it's a certain vibration, and it is very regulating. So, you know, they say April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: to what bring your blood pressure down, you put your dog. there's April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: all kinds of ways that we can just, it is really about to me, at the end of the day, nervous system regulation to say, okay, I'm gonna take a deep breath, I'm gonna take a pause. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: And then I'll go back to my to-do list. And sometimes, like April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: you said, when you step away and you come back to that to do list, maybe now you're just gonna re-prioritize it. that I really can do that tomorrow. Or it doesn't even be done at all. You know, nobody's gonna see that cobweb in the corner. Like it's okay. You know, April Hankins: Yeah. Totally. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: it's okay. People don't analyze your life the way you think they do. And I think unfortunately April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: that's kind of how, you know, because I do have clients who come to my house, I do keep it. But I'm just tidy by nature. Don't look in my corners, but everything April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: else is in place and untidy and it's clean where it needs to be. But yeah, I just I April Hankins: Uh-huh. Laura Lewis: think that society has trained us to constantly be in go mode. There's never enough time. Yeah. April Hankins: Mm. Yeah. Definitely. And as you're saying, like Our kids see that and we maybe feel pressure to keep them entertained. Even just like as a mom with young kids, it's like I know if they're entertained, I can maybe get like three dishes done, right? And so it's like, Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: how do we find this balance of like, okay, like dishes eventually need to get done. And also how can I make space to just be with my kids and they can experience that intimate connection of just being without there being like something that we have to be Laura Lewis: Mm. April Hankins: doing. And I think with young kids it's naturally a challenge, but like even just like if you take a walk with a young child, they're so good at just being right. Like they see that bug and they want to spend thirty-five minutes like looking at the bug. And so like they're Laura Lewis: Mm, yeah. April Hankins: great models of this also. Laura Lewis: Yeah, until we stop it out of them. And then, you know, and I don't mean like us personally, but you know, just the April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Sharp Laura Lewis: way society is, the cultures. But absolutely, it's just that just being. You know, I April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: have recently been telling some of my friends I'm in the, I'm not gonna say, but it starts with an F era. Like April Hankins: Okay. Yeah. Laura Lewis: I sometimes just say, F that, F F yeah, if no. F absolutely not. No, like. April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: It's just because now I'm at that age where I have I have a different lens, a different perception. I now April Hankins: Mm. Mm. Laura Lewis: know, well, for most of the time what's really important, what's not. And again, if April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: I could take the woman that I I am now and had put it back into my 30 year old body when I was starting being a mom, it is kind of weird April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: because the way our world works, we are young. When we have our babies for biological reasons for the body and things like that. But yet we become very smart when we get older. You know, and it's like it's kind of backwards. But unless April Hankins: Mm, sure. Mm, mm hmm. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: we start our children early, teach April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: them regulation, teach them boundaries, teach April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: them how maybe you don't have to keep yourself busy all the time. You don't need to do three sports. You don't need April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: to spend every minute with your friend on a game. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: You don't need to be in front of that game, you know, killing, you know, playing whatever you're doing on those games. Because that too is rewiring your brain. Anything that's repetition creates a pattern in the brain, and then you become so used to it, it's almost addictive. And it's it's over, like you April Hankins: Mm, mm. Laura Lewis: know, is problem with your clients. They become overstimulated, they get that hit of dopamine, they don't know how to step away from it, and they forget how to just be. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Yeah, because just being is unfamiliar and our brain loves what's familiar. So even Even if we can get to the point where we can give ourselves permission to relax and be still, if it feels unfamiliar, our body may feel very unsafe. It's almost like we have to build a tolerance to that idea Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: of like I'm I'm just gonna be. And and so like if anybody is like, I try to just be, but it's so uncomfortable, like just know like it makes sense. Like I wanna normalize that for you. Your nervous system is learning that it is okay to be that way. because you likely have spent decades, like most of us, like avoiding just being, right? Because when we just are, sometimes like discomfort shows up or truth shows up that, you know, we don't really want to face or can't face, like don't have the capacity to. And so it is like as we build muscles, just like we're building our nervous system's capacity to know that it is actually safe to just be, but it might not feel that way initially. Laura Lewis: Yeah, that makes sense because it is like I was in a relationship that ended up being a little toxic and dysfunctional. And I would go away for the weekend to give him time and space, and then I would find out he was having dinner and beers with the neighbors that he didn't know because he said, I don't know how to be alone. And it's because April Hankins: yeah. Laura Lewis: when you're stuck in that, you don't want to hear the voices in your head. Like you said. April Hankins: Yeah, right. Laura Lewis: Things start to bubble up in the quiet moments, you can be having April Hankins: mhm Laura Lewis: multiple conversations with yourself and you don't April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: like what you're hearing. So you're just gonna go do something else to distract yourself. When really the real healing April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: begins, is when can you sit with yourself and be? April Hankins: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. That is where I have found like that's where the magic is. Like that's where the intuition comes from. That's where the true relationship with myself, like the medicine is within, right? Like whatever I'm searching for in the external world through this to do list, it's actually like right here, right now, already. And when I Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. Yes. April Hankins: can like pause and remember that, that's that like What more could we ask for, right? But like we're just so conditioned Laura Lewis: Mm-hmm. April Hankins: to stay external. It's just very Laura Lewis: Yes. April Hankins: natural, right? Laura Lewis: I even think with spirituality, when we allow ourselves to be indoctrinated in certain belief systems that we must go external April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: or whatever, you know, to be saved or whatever, like to but April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: really God lives within us. And then Jesus April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: taught about the, you know, the creatures the Christ consciousness that lives within us. We don't have to go external. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: To be one with creator. And we learn how to tap into ourselves because there's so much in there. You know, we are in there. April Hankins: Yeah, absolutely. Laura Lewis: Your creator is in there. The Christ consciousness is in there. We don't have now, April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: as far as like maybe some people need community, that's okay. You know, if you April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: go to a church and you want to be with like-minded people and you want that supportive community, that can be a beautiful thing. But you have to hold self April Hankins: Mm, mhm. Laura Lewis: true to. I already have everything I need right inside. It's the remembering, the intuitive April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Laura Lewis: knowing and remembering that it's already here. I just have April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: to remember how to find my way back to that. April Hankins: Yeah, absolutely. how do you find yourself remembering? What has been supportive to you to help you like come back into your soul, your heart, your womb? Laura Lewis: Just really sitting alone in my meditation room. I have a, you know, I'm lucky enough to have an empty nest. So any of the bedrooms now are serve different purposes. And April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: it's a very special room dedicated to that. And my April Hankins: Hmm. Laura Lewis: favorite therapy is crying. April Hankins: Hm. Laura Lewis: And it kind of brings me back to myself. I used to try to be like, why am I crying? And now I learn I don't need to know why I'm crying. That is how I process. I could be processing. April Hankins: Absolutely. Laura Lewis: Something that happened across the world, I don't even know it. I could April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: be processing the sadness of one of my best friends going through something, like April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: processing and allow like the movement of energy, right? Emotion is energy and move in motion. And when we April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: allow those to get stuck. So for me, I would say the time, even if it's 30 minutes, I sit with my coffee, I April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: might play a little music, like something, you know, just because I am very sound sensitive. And April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: just to sit by myself. Sit with myself in quiet. And that really catapulted the journey that I, you know, I feel like I'm probably gonna be the journey the rest of my life. We never, it never ends. It expands, it grows, it rests. yeah. Even in April Hankins: Nice. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: spirituality, I'm like, Lori, it's okay to play. Like you don't have to, you know, you don't have to always be like, I'm gonna heal myself. You know, sometimes you just gotta live April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: with yourself too. And I think that's important to remember. Like just like my a mom, April Hankins: Totally. my goodness. Laura Lewis: like. It's okay that you want to be a woman. It's okay that you need time alone because April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: again, when you fill your cup, you're gonna show up so much better for your children, your spouse, your you know, if you have a job, you know, things like that. I think that April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: is so important to remember. April Hankins: Yeah. We're building secure attachment to ourselves, helping ourselves feel safe, seen Laura Lewis: Yeah. April Hankins: and soothed. And we want our kids to see that, that mom is worthy Laura Lewis: Yes. April Hankins: of feeling safe, seen and soothed. And that, you know, ripples out into our relationship with them too and how they learn to treat themselves. Like, I can show up for myself so I feel safe, seen and soothed. And so, absolutely. I I just am having this visual of you in your meditation room with your slow music and it's just like so lovely and cozy. I just love it so much. Laura Lewis: Well, and I love what you the the example too is my my daughters, April Hankins: Mm. Laura Lewis: they would have anxiety. And so I started creating the boundaries for them then when they were young because they need that. And I had the one I said, okay, no, I don't care what time you go to sleep. At nine o'clock, cell phone goes in my bedroom. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: You are required to take a shower with lavender. I don't care if you stay in your April Hankins: Hmm. Laura Lewis: bed and read. I don't care, but no more phone because it's overstimulating. April Hankins: Yeah. Laura Lewis: And to this day, all three of my girls, they take hot salt baths, they light candles, April Hankins: So Laura Lewis: they light insect, they they understand the importance of self care. April Hankins: Mm, so great. Yeah. Laura Lewis: Yeah. April Hankins: you're such a gem. We will have to wrap up, but I just so love spending time with you and I just love who you are and the spirit that you bring, and all of your wisdom. Laura Lewis: Well, yeah. April Hankins: So, if anyone's interested in like your wild feminine retreat or your Reiki services or massage therapy or waxing, how would you like people to find you? Laura Lewis: well, don't really have a website anymore because I'm really kind of by referral basis only. because I do work out of my home. So I am, you know, a little careful. But I April Hankins: Sure. Laura Lewis: a phone number, I do prefer text because April Hankins: Okay. Laura Lewis: if I am with a client, but and I don't even have that number memorized. I'm embarrassed to say that. April Hankins: It's totally fine. Laura Lewis: so the number for that is 330244801. April Hankins: Mm-hmm. Laura Lewis: And then if you're interested about me and my posts, you can go to Laura Moses Lewis on Facebook. I mostly tied into the the fine the you know the divine feminine, how we're trying to make our way back to ourselves. And then the alchemy room April Hankins: Yes. Laura Lewis: slash Laura Moses healing is also my professional page on Facebook. April Hankins: Perfect. Yep. I'll put them in the notes so people have them. Love it. Love you. Thanks for just who you are. Thank you for hanging out with us, Laura. my gosh. A precious little doll. Gosh, I love Laura Lewis: Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, you too. You are a precious little doll yourself. April Hankins: it. Laura Lewis: You're welcome. All right. Have a good day. Bye bye. April Hankins: Thank you for hanging out with me. I hope this conversation gave you an experience of connection and a reminder that you are not alone in what you're navigating. If this episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow the podcast so you get notified of all the future episodes. You can find more about my therapy offerings and the local overstimulated mom's club at aprilhankinstherapy.com. Until next time. From one overstimulated mom to another, I've got your back.