Latest / The MODERN YIN Podcast / Feeling Off After the Time Change? Let’s Talk the Body’s Energy Clock, Yin & Sleep

Transcript

Feeling Off After the Time Change? Let’s Talk the Body’s Energy Clock, Yin & Sleep · The MODERN YIN Podcast

• 0:00
  Hey, hey, Yinning at Life Gang. It's Kimberly Roberts, your host
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  here, and I'm so excited to deliver little bits of insight
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  on living your best, most extraordinary life with, of
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  course, Yin yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, reflexology,
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  and even mindset acts. So thank you so much for
• 0:27
  pressing play on today's episode.
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  Let's do this. Hello, everybody, and welcome
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  back to the Yinning at Life podcast where we are talking
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  about all things Yin yoga, traditional Chinese medicine,
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  finding calm and balance in your beautiful 40s and plus body.
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  So today I want to have a chat. I want to riff on something that
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  many of us experience twice a year, the time change, like
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  first of all, really would do. We still have to deal with this.
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  Like technology has evolved substantially.
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  So I don't understand why twice a year we have to change the
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  clocks so everybody always thinks, oh, yay, fall back.
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  I get an extra hour of sleep. Woo Hoo.
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  In the spring, it's like this blows because I lose an hour.
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  But here's the thing, regardless whether we're falling back or
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  we're springing forward, it's weird.
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  We feel off, we feel foggy and sometimes we're like, I don't
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  really understand why this is happening.
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  So I want to talk about the why, why this is happening.
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  This kind of extra tired, but can't sleep kind of energy.
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  The like there's something happening after the time change,
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  but I don't really get it. Like my digestion is weird.
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  My sleep is cycle is off. Like my emotions are, you know,
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  all over the place. Like I'm telling you right now,
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  you're not imagining it. The time change really does
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  affect your body, not just your sleep, but it affects your
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  organs, your emotions, and your overall energy rhythm in your
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  body. So grab yourself a latte, get
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  cozy, and let's unpack this. OK, so what's really happening
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  when the clocks shift? I mean, it's an hour.
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  So we think, OK, it's only an hour.
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  Like how much of a difference can that make?
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  Like it's not like I'm traveling halfway across the world and
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  there's like an 18 hour time change that I get, but one hour.
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  But here's the thing, and this is all stemming in traditional
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  Chinese medicine, Meridian theory, OK, so when our clocks
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  shift our internal rhythm, OK, what Chinese medicine calls our
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  body Meridian clock, OK, we all have this internal Meridian
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  clock and it gets a little scrambled up.
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  So in traditional Chinese medicine, or I'm going to refer
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  to it as TCM moving forward here, every organ has a 2 hour
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  window when its energy peaks, OK?
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  Think of it like a car on a highway.
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  Just stay with me here, OK? So for example, I want to talk
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  about three major organs, OK? Especially when it comes time to
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  the time change, liver, lungs and kidneys.
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  So between 1:00 and 3:00 AM, that is when our liver is at its
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  energy peak, meaning it is traveling down the highway, OK?
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  It's processing emotions like frustration and anger.
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  It's dealing with like excess hormones in the body.
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  It's filtering out all the toxins.
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  And between that 2 hour period, it should be cruising along the
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  highway, not hitting traffic jams.
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  OK? And I'm going to talk about how
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  that works. Just bear with me.
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  We're going to go to the next one.
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  Lungs 3:00 to 5:00 AM. Now our lung Meridian, our lungs
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  are lit linked to grief, sadness and letting go, which especially
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  at this time of year in the fall, we have a really hard time
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  with the sadness and the letting go.
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  Because in a lot of countries, like, you know where I am right
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  now in Canada, like, you know, the, the trees are losing their
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  leaves and everything is getting kind of bleak.
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  And it's, you know, like the days are shorter and there's
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  less sunlight. So for some people this can feel
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  like everything is dying, right? And it can have a really heavy
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  energy around it, especially when we don't have a lot of
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  natural sunlight and our days are so short.
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  Now our kidneys, it's energy peaks between 5:00 and 7:00 PM.
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  Now our kidneys are so important in Chinese medicine because they
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  store our vital energy, our Jing, OK.
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  And it's connected to fear and it's also connected to fatigue.
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  So if you think about the just these these three organs, OK,
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  and these peak times, this is when they're literally at their
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  their energy peak and they're supposed to be driving along,
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  just cruising along the highway without hitting a traffic jam.
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  But here's the thing. How many of us really have
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  balanced organs and emotions? I don't know anybody.
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  I even put myself in that category.
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  We all do. So is everything cruising along
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  in those two hour periods of each one of those lungs?
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  Unlikely. Unlikely.
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  So what happens in those two hour time frames, especially if
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  you do have imbalance, is you're going to start to have magnified
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  or amplified symptoms. So for example, with the liver
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  between 1:00 and 3:00 AM, you might wake up feeling very
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  frustrated, pissed off, angry, irritated, rageful, even maybe
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  even resentful. Like, hello, I'm getting this
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  rude 2:00 AM wake up call. Like, come on.
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  Like, this pisses me off. You got hormones, you know,
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  fluctuating all over the place. And for women, if you're in
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  perimenopause or menopause, it's just like, OK, this is like a
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  roller coaster time, right? Lungs.
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  If you're experiencing a lot of grief or a lot of sadness, or
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  you're having a hard time letting go of something, whether
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  it's someone or an experience or just anything in general that
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  you're struggling with, you know, letting go of, then during
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  that time frame, those emotions and those experiences might be
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  amplified. You also might have a harder
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  time going to the bathroom at that time because the lungs are
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  paired with the large intestine. So you might be constipated, or
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  you might be the complete opposite.
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  You might have diarrhea. Like, I'm just saying that
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  during these time frames, things start to shift and instead of
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  everything cruising along the highway, it's like hitting
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  traffic jams. OK?
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  And the traffic jams are like your symptoms.
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  So same thing with the kidneys. Between 5:00 and 7:00 PMA, lot
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  of people start to feel a major dip in energy.
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  They start to feel extremely fatigued.
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  And it's like, OK, it's 6:00 and I feel like I want to go to bed
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  right now, right, with no energy left in the tank.
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  And this what can also be when fear, if that's something that
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  you're dealing with in your life can be amplified and you might
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  start to have a lot more of that emotion coming up.
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  So these are, you know, things to start to look at during
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  these, you know, 2 hour periods. Is everything just cruising
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  along? Or if you are you feeling, you
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  know, like XYZ symptom or XYZ emotion.
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  So when we lose that natural balance of light and dark, rest
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  and activity, right? Especially during this season,
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  which I kind of call is the segue into the yen season, you
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  know, rest and renewal, these organs really start to feel the
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  strain. And that's when you might notice
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  you're walking around at you're waking up at odd hours, you're
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  feeling Moody, or you're just running on what I call sleep
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  debt. OK.
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  And I'm going to be honest with you, sleep debt is real.
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  So a lot of people have a misconception.
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  I, you know, I'm going to, I sleep like crap during the week,
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  but I'll catch up on the weekend and I'll get it all back then.
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  It's not how it works. Sleep debt can only be
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  eliminated by consistently working at it.
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  Kind of like the same thing with your credit card debt, right?
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  How many people pay it off just like that?
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  Yes, lots. But sometimes some people don't.
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  You got to wean it down, right? With sleep debt, you have to
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  start to get consistent, nightly good quality sleep.
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  And while that might be, yeah, that sounds so simple, let's be
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  real. Once you hit your 40s, you don't
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  bounce back from sleep loss the way you used to, right?
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  Your hormones are shifting. Stress recovery takes longer.
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  Your nervous system stays on alert longer.
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  You know why? Because it's been used to being
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  on alert for so damn long, and so it's just used to it.
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  That heightened sympathetic state becomes our normal way of
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  existing, and when we're in that state, we don't sleep.
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  So you're probably thinking now, well Dang, like what do I do
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  now? You soften, you start to slow
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  down, you slow the F down. And this honestly, as we
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  approach the late fall and winter season, this is where yin
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  yoga and breath work become medicine.
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  Daily medicine. Instead of fighting your
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  tiredness with more coffee or pushing yourself or doing more,
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  yin yoga invites you to balance that overactive Yang energy that
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  you've had accumulated from spring and summer with stillness
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  and surrender. And when you get still and you
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  surrender, guess what? You let go.
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  When you rest into poses like for example, butterfly pose
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  where you bring the soles of your feet together and you open
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  up your knees. You can do this lying down or
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  you can do it seated and forward fold or you do Caterpillar,
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  which is a seated forward fold with the legs extended out in
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  front of you. You gently start to stimulate
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  Meridian channels like the liver, the lung and the kidneys,
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  these exact channels that need support right now.
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  I mean right now in TCM, we are in the energy of the lung
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  Meridian. So this is lung season.
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  But having said that, the liver and the kidneys still need
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  support. And when you start to add slow
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  and lengthened exhalations, like maybe you're going to count in
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  four counts as you breathe in and maybe 6 counts as you
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  breathe out. Like if you're in a yen pose and
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  you're breathing this way, you are literally rewiring your body
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  back to calm, shifting it out of sympathetic and back into
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  parasympathetic. And if you're waking up
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  consistently between 1:00 and 5:00 AM, your liver and lungs
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  are asking for space to process. They're asking you to surrender
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  and let go of maybe the control, the grip, the holding on, the
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  irritation, the frustration, or maybe it's the heavy sadness or
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  grief. But they're asking for space.
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  This is why you're waking up instead of that car on the
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  highway cruising along. It's hitting traffic jam after
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  traffic jam. And if you're dragging your ass
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  around in the afternoon or early evening, your kidneys are like,
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  hello, could we please be replenished?
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  Like maybe with a short meditation or even a quiet walk
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  after dinner instead of scrolling on your phone or
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  numbing out on Netflix, right? Like we can all carve off 15
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  minutes a day. I guarantee you, you are
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  spending at least 15 minutes of your day scrolling on your damn
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  phone or bingeing on Netflix and you can cut that out.
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  You can. 15 minutes is actually a lot of time every single day
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  to consistently start to bring your body back into balance.
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  And Yin teaches us that healing doesn't always come from doing
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  more. Sometimes it comes from doing
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  less with a deeper presence, with more awareness.
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  Like I want you to ask yourself something like really pause for
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  a moment and ask yourself like, what emotions are showing up for
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  me lately? Like what am I noticing?
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  Am I always angry or irritated? Am I always sad?
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  Am I always scared? Am I always worried?
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  And then ask yourself again, well, where do I feel these
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  emotions in my body? Like if I think about if I'm
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  feeling frustrated, like where am I actually feeling it
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  physically in my body? And what do I need to release
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  before bed tonight? Because I will tell you,
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  surrendering and letting go before bed really nourishes your
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  nervous system and your subconscious mind.
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  It just allows you to kind of just like wipe the slate clean
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  instead of your subconscious mind over analyzing and
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  processing over and over again. You don't need to do that.
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  I will tell you your body is always communicating with you.
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  Always. You just need to pause and ask.
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  But when we're over fourty, I'm going to tell you that these
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  questions, they're not indulgent.
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  They're actually really essential because our bodies are
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  more sensitive to energetic shifts and our emotions live
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  deep inside within our connective tissue and fascial
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  layers. OK.
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  And so even a few minutes, like 15 minutes of yen and breath
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  work before you go to bed can do so much for your sleep than that
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  extra freaking hour of Netflix ever could.
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  Seriously. Or that scrolling on Insta.
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  And so you know what, like if you're sitting there, you're
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  going, you know what? Like this is, this is really
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  resonating with me. Like I have a whole library
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  inside the soulful yin yoga app devoted especially for emotions
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  and organs. So emotional health and organ
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  support practices that are designed specifically to balance
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  and help support liver, lungs, kidneys through these seasons,
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  as well as your spleen and your heart like all of the organs.
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  And a lot of my practices blend yin with acupressure points or
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  with reflexology points and of course, breath work to help your
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  body release, restore and realign.
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  So tonight instead of like pushing yourself through that
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  tired but wired feeling, and you know exactly what I mean by
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  that, right? Like you're so exhausted you
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  can't even keep your eyes open. But then you know what?
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  Your head hits the pillow and you're like wide eyed, wired and
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  bushy tailed. So instead of like just going to
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  bed and feeling like that, unroll your yoga mat, dim the
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  lights. OK, put your phone away and give
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  your energy clock, that internal Meridian clock, permission to
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  reset because just like you have to change the time on a clock
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  and you have to reset it sometimes with new batteries,
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  kind of got to do the same thing with your body.
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  And I will tell you that your future self, the well rested
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  self is going to thank you. And that internal body clock is
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  going to be like hello, thank you for the reset.
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  I really needed it, but I want to reiterate that especially
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  when it comes time to your sleep, don't think that you can
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  just catch up on sleep over the course of like a couple of
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  weekends and think you're good to go.
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  You can't pull that crap off when you're over 40.
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  You could do it when you were in your 20s, but I'll tell you when
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  you're in your 40s and hormones are shifting and the nervous
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  system has stored so much heaviness, you just, you can't
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  get away with that. You need to consistently take
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  time every single day to nourish your nervous system to release
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  the emotions that your body is holding on to and of course the
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  tension that comes along with it that's held in the connective
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  tissue, right. And for most of us who are
• 18:15
  sitting all day long staring at screens being over stimulated by
• 18:20
  that, like, isn't that so much better to just come on your mat
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  and ditch your phone then stare at it and scroll on IG or binge
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  on Netflix? Like to me, like, I'm sorry, but
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  when I'm over, you know, like I'm over 40 and it's like there
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  gets to be a point in your life where you know what, you know
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  what, like my health is the most important thing and I'm willing
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  to do everything that I can and I'm going to invest in all the
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  ways that I can. And if you're not sleeping well
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  and sleeping well consistently, I will tell you something.
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  You're going to age a lot faster.
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  That vital Jing, that vital essence, that vitality, that
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  longevity that's stored in your kidneys is going to deplete a
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  lot faster, which means essentially, you're not going to
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  live as long. So do yourself a favor, invest
• 19:26
  in your health. So this is my little riff on
• 19:31
  Sleep on the TCM Body Lock. If you enjoyed this episode,
• 19:36
  share it with a friend who's been yawning out throughout the
• 19:39
  whole week. Or maybe just leave a note on
• 19:41
  the podcast to help others find this podcast.
• 19:46
  And you know what? Keep breathing, keep softening,
• 19:50
  keep yinning at life. There is something that is so
• 19:56
  incredible that's happening in the Soulful Yin world right now,
• 20:01
  the Soulful Yin Yoga app. An app that is designed to serve
• 20:07
  people over 40 who are craving calm, who are craving better
• 20:12
  sleep, who are craving ease in their body, in their minds and
• 20:19
  in their lives. Who want deep flexibility and
• 20:22
  mobility in their body. Who want to feel good in their
• 20:25
  body. Who want to live a life that is
• 20:30
  beyond extraordinary at the age of 40 and way beyond into that
• 20:36
  50s, sixties, even the 80's. The Soulful Yin app.
• 20:42
  I invite you to come in, join the membership and start to
• 20:48
  explore and discover how Yin Yoga along with reflexology,
• 20:54
  acupressure, breath work, meditation, and even very
• 21:00
  exclusive Yin Yoga series that are all designed for people over
• 21:06
  40 who are craving that simple, peaceful life.
• 21:12
  Thanks so much again for pressing play on today's
• 21:15
  episode. I look forward to seeing you in
• 21:18
  the next one.