Latest / State Of Mind Mental Health Podcast / #108 - Doing Too Much, Feeling Everything: Dr. Danielle Griffin on Breaking the Overachiever Burnout Cycle
Transcript
- 0:00oftentimes people's
- 0:02way to rest and reset was take a break, go on vacation, take a trip, three nights, five nights maybe.
- 0:09But they found themselves.
- 0:11by the time they got on the trip, maybe not until day three, that they actually start to unwind and disconnect.
- 0:18And for some people, that was their whole trip, like just a quick three-day weekend.
- 0:22And then they would come back to work and feel even more stressed because now they're playing catch-up or things that they left undone or people anxious to talk to them because
- 0:33they were gone.
- 0:34And whatever.
- 0:35Stress they relieved or decompression that they felt during that time is immediately back if not worse, right?
- 0:41Hello everybody.
- 0:42Welcome to the State of Mind podcast.
- 0:45tools, stories and truth on being human.
- 0:49My name is Mike Stroh and this is a podcast.
- 0:52for living with courage, clarity and compassion.
- 0:56On today's episode, I am speaking with Dr.
- 0:59Danielle Griffin.
- 1:03hello, Danielle.
- 1:04Thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom with us.
- 1:09Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what brings you to this point in your life?
- 1:16Yeah, again, my name is Danielle.
- 1:18I help high achieving professionals manage their chronic stress and pain.
- 1:23And I do that through somatic exercise therapy.
- 1:27I'm also a certified hypnotherapist.
- 1:30And so I combine those practices to give people the tools that they need to, you know, that are accessible and manageable so that they can.
- 1:42free gain their life back so to speak.
- 1:45Thank you.
- 1:46And maybe, I don't know if I should be calling you Dr.
- 1:49Danielle, but you also have a doctorate degree, I think in a prior career or a prior time.
- 1:57Maybe can you tell us a little bit about that and what brings you to the work you're doing now or how you got here?
- 2:03Yeah, for many years I worked in higher education doing research and leadership development as well.
- 2:12And over time, you know, I had a lot of workplace trauma in the various, you know, institutions that I worked for.
- 2:20um I had a lot of personal things happening, especially once COVID happened.
- 2:24I lost my dad, my husband lost his dad.
- 2:27We had another kid, just a lot going on and feeling the pressure from the workforce, the workplace, not allowing me the space that I needed to grieve.
- 2:42It didn't allow me the space to heal after having a baby, through that grief.
- 2:47And I saw that in myself.
- 2:48I saw that with other coworkers that I worked with, colleagues that I worked with.
- 2:52And it manifested as the chronic pain, for me, high blood pressure, for some people, oh emotional reactivity.
- 3:02They were lashing out on people in the workplace.
- 3:04And then even once I left,
- 3:06higher education and went to corporate America, it was really more the same.
- 3:12Some places a little bit better than others, depending on the size of the organization, but people just didn't have the tools that they needed to manage that.
- 3:22Not everybody has the luxury of just saying, you know what, quit, I throw up my hands, and they don't always recognize where some of that...
- 3:31tension is coming from it isn't always necessarily the workplace itself, but sometimes because we're bearing so much, we come to a breaking point and we assume, oh, that's the
- 3:44reason I broke.
- 3:46We don't realize all of the years of all the stress, the pain, the trauma that has built up and not.
- 3:54hoping with it, not having the time to release it, not having the resources or the people to speak to, not having the tools that we need to manage it.
- 4:09And I know also for myself as well as a lot of other people that I worked with, there historically has been
- 4:17what's the word I'm looking for, you know, just people that are skeptical, whether it be about talk therapy or other holistic methods to relieving their stress and pain, you know,
- 4:30managing their mental health.
- 4:31And I found these practices were a good entry point for me.
- 4:37where I didn't have to feel judged or I didn't feel like I had to go out of my way necessarily.
- 4:45That was often like, I have to go to the therapist's office to speak to them and it's, I don't really have time already, all these other things.
- 4:53Similar concepts with physical health, people assume like, all my back hurts, I need to go to the gym, I need to work out.
- 5:01and those things might be true, but there could be other underlining things causing it.
- 5:07And we often will put these kind of barriers in place, limiting beliefs, things that are just keeping us from healing because we've created, you know, either excuses or other
- 5:23rationale to stop us from doing it.
- 5:26Yeah, thank you.
- 5:28So how did you discover those things?
- 5:31So you had all this workplace and stress and all that.
- 5:35mean, the trauma and the grief of losing people like that and everything that happened.
- 5:40Yeah, how did you come into this?
- 5:42Yeah, it really wasn't until my husband brought it to my attention that I was essentially looking old.
- 5:56basically all my stress that I was carrying was physically manifesting.
- 6:04I was at a point, I was losing sleep, working myself to death literally.
- 6:12you the candle at both ends, doing all the things, you know, as part of organizations, I was, you know, in every like committee on these organizations.
- 6:21I wasn't able to say no, keeping, you know, piling more onto my plate work professionally family.
- 6:28And it wasn't until, know, basically an outside person, you know, my husband, but somebody not me, somebody outside of my own brain to say,
- 6:39hey, what are you doing?
- 6:40You're obviously not doing something right.
- 6:43And so I had to sit down with myself and like, I worked all these years, know, I got my or my doctorate degree, you know, have a great job.
- 6:54This cannot be what I'm living my life for.
- 6:58This isn't.
- 6:59what I signed up for.
- 7:00My life is supposed to look a lot better.
- 7:03Not that it was bad, but I wasn't happy.
- 7:06And I had to come to that realization during that time and really understand why am I not happy?
- 7:15What's going on?
- 7:17Running businesses as well.
- 7:19And so once I kind of started doing some research about how I'm feeling and as well as methods to help me, know, and some of that transpired into you getting a coach that
- 7:35transpired into, you know, the holistic methods where I
- 7:40came across the hypnotherapy and working on my mindset, as well as, you know, kind of this snowball effect running into the somatic therapy.
- 7:52And once I started trying the things, you know, and working on myself, that's really when I saw the benefits.
- 8:03You know, I was...
- 8:04willing and open to try it.
- 8:07I knew I was at a breaking point.
- 8:08I knew that the way things were going wasn't how I wanted them to go.
- 8:14So there has to be something else.
- 8:16I have to be able to make the change.
- 8:19And that was the change.
- 8:22Yeah, lovely.
- 8:23can you, what are some of those practices or maybe another question is, I found my way into a lot of that work through mindfulness-based stress reduction, which I don't know if
- 8:36you've heard of that program, but it's like for chronic pain, right?
- 8:39And then also now more psychological suffering, I guess you could say.
- 8:43um and.
- 8:46Is that similar to somatic healing?
- 8:49Can you kind of clarify some of those terms?
- 8:52I guess hypnotherapy, somatic healing and just,
- 8:55the somatic healing, especially when it comes to somatic exercises, you're creating a practice for yourself, combining breath work, meditation, and movement to create awareness
- 9:07in your body, mind and body.
- 9:10and to use that awareness to understand where some of your stress, pain, grief is living within yourself and be able to do the movement, the breath work, the meditation to release
- 9:26it.
- 9:26So that's all it essentially is.
- 9:27And then in my practice where I combine the hypnotherapy is I've felt that
- 9:34meditation, you know, there's very various forms of meditation.
- 9:39And to me, hypnotherapy is just a deeper form of meditation.
- 9:43And it's, you know, often guided or you have a goal in mind, essentially.
- 9:53And so I replace the traditional form of meditation with hypnotherapy.
- 10:01So
- 10:02Hello, thank you for that.
- 10:05I've never heard it put that way and that helps me so much.
- 10:09I sort of maybe assumed something, that's how I would tell myself what I thought sort of hypnotherapy is, because I've never actually done it, but I've actually, have done, there
- 10:21was some app that I found that had some form of hypnotherapy, which was interesting and it seemed like guided meditation.
- 10:29I really like how you just described that.
- 10:31did you...
- 10:33I'm having five questions at once appear in my head.
- 10:38So let me just take a breath and slow that down.
- 10:42So as you're discovering this way of relating to experience, I guess you could call it that, had you already left the corporate world or not?
- 10:54Or are you still in it?
- 10:55Yeah.
- 10:56I was still in it.
- 10:57I was doing my corporate job.
- 11:01I was also teaching yoga as well.
- 11:03um I also had a business.
- 11:06I still have the business, but like I saying, I was doing a lot at the same time.
- 11:13And I feel like that experience in the corporate world as well as my experience in higher education.
- 11:19is really why I kind of focus on the people that I do because I know what we go through in the professional life, you especially when we're really big on career advancement, you
- 11:33know, that was what a lot of my research was about when I was in higher ed is career self-development, you know, how to...
- 11:44Climb the career ladder, especially when you're in what's called a boundaryless career.
- 11:50So careers that don't just have a straight up and down trajectory, right?
- 11:55Like the traditional careers, more of our professions these days are what we call boundaryless.
- 12:01You might have one title, you might leave a company for another title, kind of climbing the ladder, if you will, but in a more zigzag fashion.
- 12:12And, but the people in those careers had similar experiences, you know, just in terms of the burnout, the stress, you know, fears in terms of how they're going to make things
- 12:28happen, which added more stress.
- 12:31And especially at the time that I was doing the research, you know,
- 12:34pre and post COVID, there is definitely a more of that occurring.
- 12:40um And I think a lack of resources because of lack of understanding what people were going through.
- 12:48And then just the workplaces, the traditional workplaces not set up to support the employees through that.
- 12:58they're still struggling.
- 12:59through that, right?
- 13:00Struggling to find the tools that people actually want and need.
- 13:07Yeah, that I've done a fair amount of not sustained work in corporate environments, more presentations, workshops, sometimes maybe four sessions with a team or something.
- 13:18I'm curious what your thoughts are on, and I think you're in the US, right?
- 13:24Yeah, so in Canada, you know, it's a little bit different here, but.
- 13:29guess the question is, because this did come up a lot, is the workplace the environment to focus on mental health or is the workplace an environment to work kind of idea and sort of
- 13:42where's that boundary?
- 13:43then obviously some workplaces have terrible cultures which do burn people out, right?
- 13:49And do treat people poorly and all that stuff is obvious.
- 13:54And then at the same time, showing up to work and working and feeling engaged and all that stuff is good for our mental health.
- 14:00So does that question make sense?
- 14:02And yeah.
- 14:05I would say.
- 14:06Maybe not necessarily focus on mental health, right, but supporting people through their mental health journeys.
- 14:15uh Having, giving grace and knowing that everybody is going through something.
- 14:25We can't enter the workplace, whether it's in person or virtually, and completely disconnect ourselves from whatever is going on in our lives personally.
- 14:34Yeah.
- 14:35Especially if we are in a workplace environment that doesn't have a very positive work culture.
- 14:45You know, and there can be in various forms.
- 14:49I think companies that do not have a very positive or supportive culture, no, they don't.
- 14:59And so,
- 15:01Again, they need, I believe more organizations at least need to have grace giving people space, moments to pause, moments to take breaks and relieve and decompress before they're
- 15:15taking it out on other people, causing you high levels of turnover.
- 15:20In some cases in very bad environments, there's been suicides on the job because of things they're dealing with in the workplace.
- 15:28People are dealing with financial stress, they're working multiple jobs, all these things.
- 15:35people have to recognize that the one job is not the end all be all for everybody.
- 15:43Most of us are doing multiple things in this day and age and that's just the honest truth, right?
- 15:51And more companies are starting to recognize, hey, we need to...
- 16:00You just either offer more resources so that they can receive it or putting more programs in place to allow people the opportunities to relieve some of that stress because they
- 16:12know the work they do or the environment is stressful.
- 16:16Yeah, that's in in your it.
- 16:19So your your research was on organizational leadership, is that right?
- 16:24And then, yeah, OK.
- 16:26And then I'm just curious, did you come across research in this domain, workplaces and burnout and leadership and how it all intermingles and then ways that maybe some
- 16:38organizations have good leadership and that leads to less burnout and maybe
- 16:43more profits or whatever.
- 16:44Did you come across any stuff like that?
- 16:47I think there's been a little bit more lately, at least when I was doing the work at that time, I'm not really actively doing as much research other than with the clients that I
- 16:58work with specifically.
- 16:59Um, there wasn't a lot talking about it.
- 17:03You know, it's still fairly new and that was only
- 17:07what, five, six years ago?
- 17:11yeah, at least in that space, you know, not much.
- 17:16And so we're still making headway to really, like I said, just understand as well as it's understanding and resources coming at the same time.
- 17:31People are voicing, even if we don't necessarily have substantial research behind it yet, people are voicing actively that they're in pain.
- 17:44I've seen a lot of companies starting to do more surveys, workplace surveys.
- 17:49Some are doing them.
- 17:51fairly regularly, it's weekly or monthly, and asking random questions.
- 17:56I won't say random, but in terms of kind of the full scope of the work, whether it's how they feel about the workplace, their boss, how they feel about their workload, their
- 18:08stress.
- 18:09So it's being collected for some companies internally, and they're starting to see it internally.
- 18:16people are burnt out and they're recognizing it but they're often sitting on that information not knowing what to do with it and that's where they're stuck.
- 18:29I love that because many people assume there's an easy answer or there, it should be this way or it should be that way or why isn't it like this or why isn't it like that?
- 18:42And it is hard, I think, to address that stuff.
- 18:46Yeah, I think a lot of them say, we'll just add this app.
- 18:50We'll give them this app for free.
- 18:52We'll give them this free online resource.
- 18:54And there's no.
- 18:58I guess guidance or, you know, offer of support in like how it to, not just how to use it.
- 19:07Some are, I don't want to say self-explanatory, but like, yeah, you log into the app, you create an account and you use it, right?
- 19:14But really addressing more people's specific needs.
- 19:19Like, all right, if I have this going on, what's this app going to do for me?
- 19:24Or why should I even?
- 19:25use this program or is there anybody in this app or program that can really help me with this instead of just saying here it is use it at your will you know they're building more
- 19:37of a structure around it and support system I guess if you will to really help in that regard.
- 19:48because I've seen in multiple companies, they say, okay, we're gonna give them this resource.
- 19:52We see they're burnt out.
- 19:53Here's the app, a meditation app.
- 19:55They'll like that.
- 19:57And it literally doesn't get used.
- 19:59Maybe a couple of people downloaded it, but they're not using it.
- 20:03So there's still a disconnect there.
- 20:07Yeah, big time.
- 20:08uh have a colleague who does similar work.
- 20:13I think she's an organizational psychologist.
- 20:16But the data on how many employees actually finish.
- 20:21So one, it's like how many download, how many even open it or how many actually finish any of the suggested tools or trainings is.
- 20:30Yeah, right, exactly.
- 20:36And it could be a you know, very number of things.
- 20:39Like I said, feel at least from what I've seen, there's that disconnect in terms of it's just put in here, use it, and you're expecting them to go through it and finish it on
- 20:52their own.
- 20:53We've seen from numerous online programs,
- 20:58coaching programs, even just education in general, if people aren't guided through step by step helping to get them from start to finish, they're not gonna finish.
- 21:14There's plenty of documentation for that.
- 21:18And I think that, like I said, that disconnect is happening in the workplace too when they're onboarding these types of programs.
- 21:28Yeah, think we many people can relate to that personally too.
- 21:33I think I did programs like MBSR eight times over 10 years because I knew I just I'm so much less likely to do it on my own and I need the container and the guidance as you say
- 21:48right and the the help.
- 21:51Can you describe how sort of this burnout or I don't know, the culture of just more, more, more, more, or no time to pause that kind of thing in a workplace, how that leads to or
- 22:07contributes to chronic pain and.
- 22:11Yeah, can you talk about that?
- 22:14Yeah, well, when we don't create the space for ourselves to kind of rest and reset, that chronic stress tension that we're carrying throughout the workday just builds up.
- 22:32And so what I kind of advise people to do, you know, the biggest thing I hear
- 22:39is, I don't have time.
- 22:40I have all these back-to-back meetings.
- 22:43I don't have time for exercises.
- 22:45I can't stop and take these long breaks.
- 22:47And I think that's what I appreciated the most about this practice is that a lot of those misconceptions that people have, it kind of eliminates.
- 22:57You don't need extensive amounts of time to just pause, to just take some time to re-
- 23:05do some of the stress, relieve the tension in the neck and shoulders.
- 23:09Because oftentimes, many of us, we're working at computers, we're sitting in front of computers in meetings all day in a seated, maybe hunched over position or awkward
- 23:21positions because our workspace isn't really like ergonomic, you know what I mean?
- 23:27So we're contorting our bodies weird and we're doing it for eight hours plus.
- 23:34right, we're not taking breaks, maybe get up quickly to use the bathroom and coming right back.
- 23:40And I speak from total experience in all of this, you know, I had really bad shoulder pain.
- 23:48You know, I had really bad back pain.
- 23:51I strained my back picking up my son one time, but the position which I sat and work didn't allow me
- 24:02the opportunity to heal and I was actually making it worse.
- 24:06And so when we just continue to push through and day in, day out, it's the same story, That's when it really starts to become a chronic issue.
- 24:21And being able to find those moments.
- 24:26whether it's between Zoom meetings or if you're gonna grab a quick bite to eat, you can do it then.
- 24:31Starting to become aware of those maybe transition periods or maybe optimize it in the morning or the evening to really start incorporating that breath work, that meditation and
- 24:45that movement.
- 24:46And like I said, you can do it for as little as 90 seconds.
- 24:50And then, you know, maybe 10 minutes in the morning or evening if that feels good to really decompress.
- 24:57But those pauses throughout the day is really what will help individuals relieve the tension so they're not carrying it home with them or, you know, just not making themselves
- 25:09feel worse because they've gone so long without listening to their bodies.
- 25:15Yeah, yeah, lovely.
- 25:19Can we do a 90 second, two minute practice right now?
- 25:23Please, I would love that too.
- 25:26Yeah, if you would like to close your eyes, you're welcome to.
- 25:30Just, yes.
- 25:35You can come back to it.
- 25:39But feel free to take a deep breath in through your nose and exhale out through your mouth.
- 25:50Good, in through your nose, fill up your belly, expand your lungs.
- 25:56And an audible exhale out through your mouth.
- 26:03Continue your breath at your own pace.
- 26:07You start to feel the rise and fall of your chest.
- 26:12As you inhale and exhale.
- 26:18Notice gentle shift in your body as your muscles start to relax.
- 26:25Feeling the tension release down the side of your face, behind your eyes, relieving tension in your neck and jaw.
- 26:39You might find that your jaw falls open slightly, or you might make adjustments to your jaw, the left and right, as you relieve some of the stiffness in your neck.
- 26:53and allow that relaxation to flow from the top of your neck down to your lower back.
- 27:06In this moment, pause and bring awareness to your body and how you feel.
- 27:12Notice where you shifted the most.
- 27:17or any areas where you shifted the least.
- 27:23You might do some movements in those areas.
- 27:28That might include some neck stretches, tilting your head to the left and right as you breathe in and out.
- 27:39Or some shoulder rolls, forward and back.
- 27:46or gentle twists in your seat, shifting your chest to the left and right.
- 27:55Knowing how this feels, relieving that stiffness and tension, letting any stress and pain go.
- 28:03Take a deep inhale in, and exhale, let it out.
- 28:12On your next inhale, gently open your eyes and come back to the room.
- 28:22That's a kill.
- 28:24Thank you.
- 28:24Yeah, lovely, lovely.
- 28:26You have a very soothing voice.
- 28:28Yeah, thank you.
- 28:31That was great.
- 28:33It's um.
- 28:35Yeah, yeah.
- 28:37only a few moments and like a complete physical and mental shift.
- 28:42And people can learn to do this on their own.
- 28:46It's just a matter of bringing that awareness.
- 28:50bringing, having intention, like I want to take this moment to breathe, breathing air, breathing life into my body, circulating the blood into my body, exhaling to release,
- 29:02release all the negative feeling, the negative energy, the toxins, you know, when we actively think about it and not just letting our mind and body go on autopilot, like,
- 29:15yeah, I breathe, I inhale, I exhale, but
- 29:17Yeah
- 29:18having that, your awareness and that active intention, that's when the shift happens.
- 29:24Yeah.
- 29:25Can you expand on that idea and the, the mind body, if that whole argument of if they different or not, but, and maybe in your own experience to how you became connected to, or
- 29:39aware of how much we live in our heads or in our thoughts and what the transition into
- 29:47living in our bodies, I guess, is like.
- 29:50Yeah, for me that transition really came through the hypnotherapy practice.
- 29:55When I learned about it and started doing some guided practice, it allowed me to release a lot of the fears and the things that I was holding that was holding me back.
- 30:11And it allowed me to become aware of how I feel and what my life could be like once I start to make a change.
- 30:23And that's really where I started to have that deeper connection and understanding that my mind literally controls my body, right?
- 30:34Like whatever.
- 30:36I tell my mind and whatever I say is true.
- 30:42My body tells me that's true.
- 30:44Whatever I'd say I want and need, excuse me, and I start to visualize myself, I see myself doing it and being it and living it.
- 30:57I actually start to step into that.
- 31:00I started to become it, I started to physically manifest those things.
- 31:04And that allowed me to, like I said, really create that practice for myself and build that consistency.
- 31:11So I did feel a difference.
- 31:13I did feel the change in myself.
- 31:16And then people started to see the change in me as well.
- 31:20And that's...
- 31:20They often say other people recognize it in us before we do, right?
- 31:24The changes, yeah.
- 31:26I guess.
- 31:28I think I'm answering my own question in my head, but I need it to hear it over and over is.
- 31:34How do you talk to people about all of that who, my assumption or experiences, it's so hard to, you can think it, but we do have to experience all those things you just
- 31:45described, right?
- 31:46And so how do we, or how do you help nudge people out of that thinking?
- 31:55sort of problem solving mind to, okay, fine, you know, okay, fine, I'll just I'll do it and I'll try or whatever.
- 32:01Yeah.
- 32:02I don't know if you have any insights on that.
- 32:05Yeah, I mean, it kind of comes in a couple different ways, but at least initially through connecting on where connecting with where they're at currently, you know, really having a
- 32:21conversation about how they're feeling, how their life is going, how they're living their lives currently.
- 32:28and getting to kind of the crux of the problem and allowing them the opportunity to articulate that this is not what they want, and that they understand that they need to try
- 32:42something new.
- 32:45If somebody is like, no, my life is great, I'm fine, maybe there's one or two things that have changed, then maybe it's not for them.
- 32:54But when...
- 32:56when somebody is really saying like, I'm in pain, you know, I'm hurting, I'm stressed, I don't know how to get out of this cycle, I know I need to make a change.
- 33:10And then that's when we really can start entertaining the conversation about what change looks like and how they can take the next steps to make that happen.
- 33:23and their willingness and openness to, again, if people aren't willing and open, then do they really wanna make the change?
- 33:31It's kind of like when I was learning hypnotherapy and one of the arts of hypnotherapy, one of the things we can do is smoking cessation, right?
- 33:40For people that wanna stop smoking.
- 33:44And there's people that want to stop and then there's people that legitimately do not want to stop, regardless of the potential outcomes.
- 33:53like, well, that's not me yet, right?
- 33:55So they don't mind.
- 33:56But some people do have the fear that this is keeping me from doing the things I love, that I'm not healthy.
- 34:06My family won't talk to me because of this.
- 34:09Yeah.
- 34:10deeper issues, maybe some loss associated with it, maybe financial pain, identifying some of the constraints and the fears that they have that are...
- 34:24keeping them from living the life that they want to.
- 34:27You similar to my experience, I had to identify like, why am I feeling this way?
- 34:33This is not how I want to live and I know I need to make a change.
- 34:39So.
- 34:41Yeah, that's...
- 34:42Just the reminder that if people aren't open and willing and acknowledging that whatever is happening is not what they want to be happening.
- 34:54Yeah, I guess we can't need to always be reminded of these things over and over.
- 34:59uh
- 35:01And I think that's where that awareness comes in.
- 35:03You it wasn't for me until that moment where I really started to have that awareness.
- 35:09Otherwise, I was just really operating on autopilot, just day in and day out doing the same things, driving myself into this whole, you know, creating a unhealthy life for
- 35:20myself.
- 35:22But once I stopped and paused and realized I don't want my life to be like this, I know I have
- 35:27family members and elders that have had all these diseases and cancers and I can't go down that same path.
- 35:37there's a way that I can prevent it, I need to.
- 35:42And that for me was the point.
- 35:45Yeah, that's perfect.
- 35:47Yes.
- 35:47Can you describe that tension of...
- 35:52kind of, we think we need to just keep going or keep, I just, if I just, you know, do this thing or if, uh, as you said earlier, I don't have time to slow down.
- 36:02how, how do you help people navigate that sort of thought process of, know some things may be not right.
- 36:11You said earlier, also that excuse of, or the rationalization of, I don't have time.
- 36:17And if I slow down or if I do this, then I won't be, I don't know, I won't be this high achieving person or whatever.
- 36:26How do you kind of help people?
- 36:29I don't know, readjust that perspective.
- 36:34Through kind of like sessions like this where I've been able to help them, guide them through even just the short pauses, giving them an opportunity, like are you at least
- 36:46willing to try it for a few seconds?
- 36:48And I found that once people feel the shift, once they see like what the
- 36:55practice actually is once they've had a few moments to see what it feels like.
- 37:02that sends signals to the brain, you know, positive, you know, hormones and reducing cortisol levels and like I said, improving oxygen and blood flow and circulation and your
- 37:14body instantly says like, this feels good to me.
- 37:17This is, you're giving me exactly what I needed that I didn't have.
- 37:23And somewhere it registers, especially when we kind of slow down the mind.
- 37:28it registers, need more of that.
- 37:31And it kind of gives them more of that willingness to at least try figuring out where there's space in their lives to really implement and practice even just those 90 second
- 37:44pauses.
- 37:46So what I think of that in some sense is rather than trying to negotiate or rationalize somebody, you just sort of get them right into, are you open to just trying this for a
- 37:58minute and seeing what happens?
- 38:00Yeah.
- 38:01a lot of people.
- 38:02mean, that, again, it takes some willingness and openness.
- 38:07If somebody is completely out, no, I don't want to try it out, then that's fine.
- 38:12It's not for them.
- 38:14Best of luck.
- 38:19You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink, right?
- 38:26But once people really start to feel, especially when it comes to the hypnotherapy, it's really just a deeper meditation, getting even more relaxed.
- 38:37It doesn't have to be the stage performance or you're cooking like a chicken and doing all those stuff, I think.
- 38:44Let's disconnect ourselves from what our mind.
- 38:48says it is or what we have seen that it is historically and know that it doesn't have to be that.
- 38:57Yeah, yeah.
- 38:58Even with the practice of somatics, you a lot of people associate it directly with yoga and like, I'm not flexible or I don't want to be in a yoga studio.
- 39:10You know, I can't do this, that and the other.
- 39:12And this practice is about accessibility and meeting people where they're at, people having awareness of what they need, understanding their limitations.
- 39:26you're not in a studio where people are guiding you to a peak pose that you're not ready to do, It's you telling you what you need.
- 39:38Right, that whole yoga.
- 39:41I know in MBSR you start with a lying down yoga, which is just glorious.
- 39:47It was so relieving for me.
- 39:49um
- 39:51my favorite part of the class is.
- 39:54when you're lying down.
- 39:55Yeah.
- 39:57maybe can you, I guess we're kind of running out of time here.
- 40:00So can you maybe talk a little bit about, uh, I think you run retreats or you, do sort of longer, maybe more thorough.
- 40:10Yes.
- 40:11services service in that way.
- 40:13I don't know what else to call it.
- 40:14Experience.
- 40:15I think that's the right word.
- 40:16Yeah.
- 40:17Okay, just tell us a little bit about that and how how you came to that perhaps and then also what what that's like if people are to do something like that.
- 40:26Yeah, excuse me.
- 40:29I offer what I call the rise and renew retreat and essentially came about in that people weren't necessarily ready for a full, you know, in-depth coaching or reset in that way,
- 40:47but they knew they needed something.
- 40:49And oftentimes people's
- 40:51way to rest and reset was take a break, go on vacation, take a trip, three nights, five nights maybe.
- 40:59But they found themselves.
- 41:02by the time they got on the trip, maybe not until day three, that they actually start to unwind and disconnect.
- 41:10And for some people, that was their whole trip, like just a quick three-day weekend.
- 41:14And then they would come back to work and feel even more stressed because now they're playing catch-up or things that they left undone or people anxious to talk to them because
- 41:26they were gone.
- 41:27And whatever.
- 41:28Stress they relieved or decompression that they felt during that time is immediately back if not worse, right?
- 41:34And so my goal with the retreat is to help make sure that people who are joining us are finding that rest and reset immediately once they join the group there we're starting the
- 41:51work and giving them the tools they need to
- 41:55start to feel relaxed and start to unwind and learning how to apply these tools once they go back home.
- 42:04And that was really the main goal.
- 42:06If you take another trip, you know how to rest and reset.
- 42:10Or if you just take a few days off or whatever you feel like you need.
- 42:14For me and for the people that I work with, having those tools
- 42:20is the main reason why people are successful in making a change.
- 42:29If they just go it alone and don't know what they're doing or how to do it and they're just trying to figure it out, they're usually not successful.
- 42:43Or it takes people a way longer period, know, period of time to f***.
- 42:49to get there, right?
- 42:51Yeah.
- 42:52it's so nice to hear that.
- 42:55Again, being reminded of these ideas of in one in, in my AA group, there's a big sign that's 70 years old at the front of the room.
- 43:05You are no longer alone.
- 43:06And I know it's not exactly the analogy you just gave, but that this idea that
- 43:11We need to do it alone.
- 43:13We have to do it alone.
- 43:14I got to figure this out and all this stuff.
- 43:16You know, it doesn't have to be that way.
- 43:19And as you were just describing so nicely, when we can kind of maybe let go of that and seek the guidance and the support and then, and then we can sort of do it alone, so to
- 43:31speak.
- 43:31But, but it's okay to accept that you can't or you don't need to, or maybe it's a little.
- 43:38easier if you just get some help and then go from there.
- 43:42Yeah.
- 43:43And that we don't know everything, right?
- 43:48It's okay.
- 43:49And that's okay.
- 43:50We can let go of some of our assumptions, you know, and come to new situations, new environments with open minds.
- 44:03Yes.
- 44:03that's amazing.
- 44:05You
- 44:06Well, Danielle, thank you so much.
- 44:10Any parting words or things we didn't discuss that you want to mention before we sort of say goodbye?
- 44:20I think, you know, just reminding the listeners to take moments to breathe.
- 44:27know, if you're going to do anything from this practice, breathing is probably one of the most important ones.
- 44:35And if we start to breathe, you know, the rest kind of follows.
- 44:41Yeah.
- 44:42Sorry.
- 44:43I was just taking a nice long breath there as you were suggesting that.
- 44:47yes.
- 44:48okay.
- 44:48Well, again, thank you so much for your time and I wish you all the best.
- 44:53And, one thing I didn't say, and I'll cut this out as to make sure before we turn shut down our browsers that the thing has uploaded, I assume, like, do you see that upload
- 45:03thing?
- 45:04Yeah.
- 45:05Okay.
- 45:06You
- 45:07I'll stop the recording before shutting the thing down, but that aside again, thank you so much for your time and your wisdom and ah yeah, okay, take it easy.
- 45:21All right, stop.
- 45:24Thanks for listening to this episode of the State of Mind Podcast.
- 45:28Before you go, pick one idea from today's episode and practice it this week.
- 45:33Remember, live with courage, clarity and compassion.
- 45:38Practice inner strength and develop within.
- 45:42If you enjoyed this, follow and subscribe.
- 45:46Leave us a quick review or rating on your favorite podcast platform.
- 45:53and share this episode with someone who you think might find it helpful.
- 45:56You can also follow us on YouTube and otherwise, I wish you all the very best.
- 46:02Take it easy.
- 46:04Peace out.