Latest / The Spiritual Parent: Mindful Tools for Raising Spiritual and Conscious Kids / Enhancing Wellness Through Posture and Parenting Insights with Dr. Michelle Green

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Enhancing Wellness Through Posture and Parenting Insights with Dr. Michelle Green · The Spiritual Parent: Mindful Tools for Raising Spiritual and Conscious Kids

• 0:00
  Michelle: the shape position, tension, tone of your spine is the shape position, tension, tone of your life.
• 0:07
  Michelle: And what that really means is and you can try it when you have a moment but if you take a moment and you close your eyes and you take your head down and you think about something, versus when you change your posture, you bring your shoulders back, you put your head up, you look towards the sky and you add that curve in your neck which often we don't have during the day, you'll notice there's a difference on how you perceive the thing you're thinking about.
• 0:35
  Michelle: It's really interesting and that's just a small example.
• 0:37
  Michelle: But when we are on our phones or even as moms, we're looking down at our kids, all the time, it puts stress on our spine.
• 0:47
  Michelle: But our nervous system, our spinal cord, our brainstem, that all sits within the spine and so it can really add some fight or flight hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, things like that when your spine is hunched over.
• 1:02
  Michelle: Hi Conscious.
• 1:03
  Carrie: Parents.
• 1:04
  Carrie: It's Keri here and I am here with a little info about raising our mindful kids.
• 1:08
  Carrie: I've got some tips and tricks about breaking free of the box and becoming who you are and teaching your kids how to do that along the way.
• 1:16
  Carrie: Join us, hi, conscious Moms and Dads.
• 1:19
  Carrie: Do you have moments where you miss that flow state that you used to find before becoming a parent?
• 1:25
  Carrie: Was there something that you used to work in that your heart was really passionate about and you felt like you were making a difference in the world?
• 1:32
  Carrie: You can join us with a free guided meditation available in the show notes, to help you rediscover your passion in life.
• 1:41
  Carrie: Hi there and welcome back.
• 1:44
  Carrie: I'm Keri.
• 1:45
  Carrie: I'm your conscious parent here and you guys, I have a really fun person to chat with today.
• 1:52
  Carrie: I've just been picking her brain already.
• 1:54
  Carrie: We have Dr Michelle Green.
• 1:55
  Carrie: She's a mom of two little ones, a network spinal chiropractor, a business owner and advocate for non-toxic lifestyle.
• 2:03
  Carrie: I love that.
• 2:04
  Carrie: The chiropractic technique is also unique in that it focuses on balancing the nervous system and uses light touches to help unwind the system.
• 2:13
  Carrie: And, michelle, you and I were just chatting briefly before.
• 2:17
  Carrie: I love so much that you talk about the nervous system.
• 2:20
  Carrie: I feel like we are now learning so much and we're spreading the knowledge with the general public.
• 2:28
  Michelle: Thank, you so much for being here.
• 2:30
  Michelle: Thank you so much for having me.
• 2:33
  Michelle: I'm so happy and excited to be here and share more.
• 2:36
  Carrie: Yeah, it's so fun to connect with another family.
• 2:40
  Carrie: So you said you have a two and a half year old and a one year old, so you're in a little different phase.
• 2:46
  Carrie: I have a six year old and a nine year old, yep, so I'm a little bit in the future version for you guys.
• 2:53
  Carrie: Yeah, but what have you found?
• 2:55
  Carrie: Have you found any pieces of the nervous system that you can share with us?
• 3:00
  Carrie: For as far as with when we're looking at kiddos who may have this?
• 3:04
  Carrie: My kids have this spirited, gifted, very excited piece of life for them.
• 3:12
  Carrie: They're just born very excited for life.
• 3:15
  Carrie: Have you found in your practice that you've noticed these pieces with kids born today?
• 3:21
  Carrie: What would you say?
• 3:23
  Michelle: Yes, yeah, we are living in a world today that is different than any other time in human history.
• 3:29
  Michelle: It's like such a novel time for our nervous systems and our bodies and there's so many amazingly gifted kids and also like with that I feel like, sometimes comes more sensitive nature too and we're just bombarded with so many emotional and physical and chemical stressors these days and it's hard as an adult, but these kids' nervous systems it can be overwhelming to them for sure that's.
• 4:02
  Michelle: I love to focus on that piece because our nervous system, it controls everything.
• 4:07
  Michelle: Every cell can be traced back to our nervous system and when we go through stress, whether it's every single day, just little stressors or even just big stressors, like I shared with you with my son these things can get trapped in the nervous system and kids don't always know how to handle these things.
• 4:28
  Michelle: So it's a good it's.
• 4:31
  Michelle: I love to see it when kids have breakthroughs.
• 4:35
  Michelle: Just recently I worked with a little kindergartner and she was having anxiety about going to the restroom and she nobody.
• 4:44
  Michelle: You can't really explain logically why this is happening, but I could see in her nervous system there was stress there and we helped unwind that and I think she's on day like 25 of going to the bathroom and she's not like having stress anymore when you can unlock that piece.
• 5:01
  Michelle: It just opens up so much for kiddos and adults.
• 5:04
  Michelle: But kiddos especially, they're so sensitive and they're so open and it's really cool to see.
• 5:11
  Carrie: So you had mentioned like that posture can affect our nervous system and because you're doing chiropractic work with kids and adults, what does that look like?
• 5:20
  Carrie: What does that look like?
• 5:21
  Carrie: Yes, yes.
• 5:24
  Michelle: So one of my favorite quotes is the shape, position, tension, tone of your spine.
• 5:35
  Michelle: Is the shape, position, tension, tone of your life.
• 5:36
  Michelle: And what that really means is and you can try it when you have a moment but if you take a moment and you close your eyes and you take your head down and you think about something, versus when you change your posture, you bring your shoulders back, you put your head up, you look towards the sky and you add that curve in your neck which often we don't have during the day, you'll notice there's a difference on how you perceive the thing you're thinking about.
• 6:01
  Michelle: It's really interesting and that's just a small example.
• 6:04
  Michelle: But when we are on our phones or even as moms, we're looking down at our kids, all the time it puts stress on our spine.
• 6:14
  Michelle: But our nervous system, our spinal cord, our brainstem, that all sits within the spine and so it can really add some fight or flight hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, things like that, when your spine is hunched over.
• 6:29
  Michelle: So the shape and position that your spine is in really does make a difference.
• 6:34
  Michelle: Yeah, with these technological devices, these phones, but, like I said, even being a mom of littles, we hold a lot of stress in our body that way, and it can change a lot of how we perceive things around us, for sure.
• 6:52
  Carrie: Interesting.
• 6:53
  Carrie: I love that, even thinking of the mom piece.
• 6:55
  Carrie: As I was nursing my children I would always bend forward because I wanted to coddle them and it was just this loving connection.
• 7:03
  Carrie: But I'd have to remind myself sit up.
• 7:05
  Carrie: I still have nursing shoulder here.
• 7:09
  Michelle: Yes, it's a common thing, it happens yeah.
• 7:14
  Carrie: It's interesting, my kiddos I just switched them from a more traditional school into a social emotional focus school locally and it's been like night and day for my kids.
• 7:24
  Carrie: But my third grader thank you, my third grader he's been coming home.
• 7:28
  Carrie: They're learning about money and so they get like a certain amount to spend in class that they earn.
• 7:34
  Carrie: They have to earn it and then they get to rent their table, rent their chairs, and it's really cool in our classroom they get to choose what kind of chair.
• 7:43
  Carrie: So they have a regular seated chair, they have a rocking chair style or they have that rolly kind of movement chair.
• 7:52
  Carrie: And my son's mom I had no clue but I really liked the rocking chair and he's a hummer at home so I can really just imagine him moving all day.
• 8:02
  Carrie: That is so great.
• 8:04
  Michelle: I love that there's a school that does that.
• 8:06
  Michelle: I had no idea that was even a thing.
• 8:08
  Michelle: Yeah, so he's into the rocking chair.
• 8:13
  Carrie: That's great.
• 8:13
  Carrie: He's in the rocking chair.
• 8:14
  Carrie: He also likes the rolly one too, and you know, when OT had mentioned like buying a yoga ball for us, and he's always on this big yoga ball just bouncing up and down and building his Legos, and so I'm really glad that they have these options at school instead of just sitting straight right Hunched over our desks.
• 8:33
  Carrie: Yes, I love to see that.
• 8:36
  Carrie: Or it makes me cry in my heart a little bit as a former educator, when I go to the kindergarten classrooms and I see the kids are sitting at their desks they're not grouped together, moving around, moving from being on the floor with the teacher to going to the.
• 8:52
  Carrie: I love to see that.
• 8:53
  Carrie: Just differentiated learning and moving around.
• 8:56
  Carrie: And, yeah, I love to see.
• 8:58
  Michelle: I we're learning.
• 8:59
  Michelle: I love that.
• 9:00
  Michelle: I'll have to get the name of that school for you.
• 9:03
  Michelle: I'm just.
• 9:03
  Michelle: My kids are one and two and a half, so we're not at the school age yet, but I know it's coming quick.
• 9:10
  Michelle: So we have to make some decisions yeah, yeah it's been.
• 9:14
  Carrie: We were going to look at this option at the beginning, but my husband had said I want to think about the neighborhood school so our kids can walk to school together, they can make friends in the neighborhood.
• 9:26
  Carrie: And so we tried traditional neighborhood and it was okay and we enjoyed the community piece.
• 9:31
  Carrie: But my kids really needed something different.
• 9:35
  Carrie: They needed the social, emotional support.
• 9:37
  Carrie: They needed the project-based learning and I think along with this comes the outdoor learning piece that they get to do.
• 9:45
  Carrie: They do a lot of lessons outside.
• 9:47
  Carrie: They do some movement lessons and, just like you're saying, not sitting in our hunch desks.
• 9:53
  Carrie: We have adulthood to maybe sit in a hunch desk.
• 9:56
  Michelle: Yes, oh yeah, we have a lot of that as adults, yes, so that's wonderful that not also their childhood do they have to sit as much in a hunch desk because that's big?
• 10:08
  Carrie: Yes, it's been such a huge piece.
• 10:11
  Carrie: Are there other pieces you you had also mentioned, like impacts to the nervous system?
• 10:17
  Carrie: Have you found things that maybe we need to watch for as moms and dads, or even for our kids?
• 10:24
  Michelle: Yeah, so physical, like being hunched over at a desk or big accidents, micro and macro traumas are to the nervous system, but also emotional things, of course.
• 10:37
  Michelle: But I think something that gets overlooked is the chemical piece of it, and that's why I'm such an advocate for finding non-toxic options at the same time, like making a switch of everything in your household to non-toxic is overwhelming.
• 10:54
  Michelle: So one thing at a time is a good approach, and even just a little bit, and chipping away at switching things over is a great thing.
• 11:03
  Michelle: But that chemical piece, I think it's overlooked.
• 11:06
  Michelle: But when we are overloaded with chemical toxins I don't know if I'm allowed to say like brand names, but like plugins, those like fragrances, things like that it can really add up and it's not always just one thing, but many things in the nervous system and we actually produce adrenaline as a by-product when we're detoxing these chemicals.
• 11:29
  Michelle: And so a big piece that gets overlooked that can put our system into a stress state, is the chemical piece.
• 11:37
  Michelle: And physical, chemical and emotional are all factors that are important to be mindful of.
• 11:45
  Michelle: We can't be perfect.
• 11:47
  Michelle: There's always going to be stress, and the other part of that is just knowing that there is always going to be stress and having a resilient enough nervous system and being able to take some of the stressors out where we have control, because we don't always have control of everything.
• 12:03
  Michelle: But the chemical piece is a part that we can make small shifts about.
• 12:08
  Carrie: Hi there, changemaker moms and dads.
• 12:10
  Carrie: It's Keri here.
• 12:11
  Carrie: I hope you're enjoying today's episode.
• 12:13
  Carrie: If there's any pieces of this episode that resonate with you, we would love for you to share.
• 12:14
  Carrie: It's Carrie here.
• 12:14
  Carrie: I hope you're enjoying today's episode.
• 12:15
  Carrie: If there's any pieces of this episode that resonate with you, we would love for you to share it with a friend.
• 12:19
  Carrie: A little helping hand goes a long way.
• 12:21
  Carrie: We appreciate you tuning in, and here's more.
• 12:24
  Carrie: Yeah, yeah, I think, trying to find that balance in our mindset of just small changes that we can afford to make sometimes.
• 12:32
  Michelle: Exactly.
• 12:34
  Carrie: Exactly, yeah, yeah, it's interesting I, when I first started to, when I was first pregnant with my son, my older one I started to go down that mom tunnel of right, of organic tunnels.
• 12:49
  Carrie: Oh my God, we need all the organic things and and leads on our plates.
• 12:54
  Michelle: It's very easy to just go down this funnel or this tunnel of craziness it is, and I'm not 100 perfect right like I thought I was going to be a cloth diapering mom and my goodness, whoever does that I like praise you.
• 13:11
  Michelle: I think it lasted two weeks and then I was like I can't have a newborn and do all this law.
• 13:19
  Michelle: I just can't, like we use Costco brand.
• 13:23
  Michelle: It works for us but you can't.
• 13:25
  Michelle: I think what you have to come to terms with is there is no such thing as perfection, especially in this world, and you just do what you can make, the switches that you can, and you're still making an impact.
• 13:41
  Michelle: So yeah, I that cloth diapering was an expensive fail.
• 13:47
  Carrie: Yes, we even had the diaper service version.
• 13:50
  Carrie: But our son every time he would go to the restroom while he was sleeping, it would wake him up right away, so he was just constantly awake.
• 13:58
  Carrie: We're like, wait, this is not working, so it wasn't the best fit for us.
• 14:03
  Carrie: But yeah, we tried it, we tried to do it.
• 14:06
  Carrie: We had all the pieces, yep, even the little special clasp, and kudos to the mamas that do it.
• 14:13
  Michelle: And, oh my gosh, I praise you Like.
• 14:15
  Michelle: You are amazing.
• 14:17
  Carrie: I couldn't Yup, yup and it's, it is true about finding that balance, cause I feel like they're picking up on our energy and if we're nervous, about all these cloth, diapers and the 18 loads of laundry I'm having to do today, that's not going gonna help them when they're this newborn.
• 14:33
  Carrie: That's against your chest and feeling your stress totally like you exactly.
• 14:41
  Michelle: There's that factor too.
• 14:42
  Michelle: You want to be emotionally well and doing that much laundry was not doing that for me.
• 14:48
  Michelle: So I think we have something has to give sometimes, but I rather be a warm and warmer and fuzzier and more balanced mom than cloth diapering in this case right.
• 15:01
  Michelle: But there's other parts where I have changes that may not work for other people.
• 15:05
  Michelle: It's just finding your balance.
• 15:07
  Carrie: Absolutely.
• 15:08
  Carrie: Yeah, it's such a mindset my husband was telling me the other day he was reading in the New York Times.
• 15:15
  Carrie: They wrote an article about red food dyes which I had noticed some impulse control changes in my two kids, who are super sensitive don't necessarily have great gut health so we've been working on that a lot and I felt so seen I was like what Somebody published an article there's research supporting this Like I had read so many things, it felt really cool to feel like we're starting to understand these pieces and we're starting to come around to these mindsets and these mother's intuition pieces that I've had.
• 15:47
  Carrie: Is there any small yeah, Is there any small things that you could tell us to change in our house?
• 15:55
  Carrie: I would love a refresher.
• 15:56
  Carrie: I don't have plugins and my house smelled very strongly of plugins when I bought it, so we tried to get all of that out with paint yes, good for you.
• 16:07
  Michelle: Yes, I went to visit side story but I went to visit my mom this last March and with with my two kids this first time, I brought my son to California where they live and she has a plug in every room.
• 16:21
  Michelle: I'm like mother, you need to just like essential oils like those are better.
• 16:27
  Michelle: But she, it's funny because she's okay, michelle, whatever and then a couple months later she'll be like Michelle.
• 16:33
  Michelle: Someone just told me about this and this and I'm like mom.
• 16:36
  Michelle: I told you about that, but it's coming from her daughter.
• 16:39
  Michelle: But some easy switches cleaning products, vinegar and water can be used for most things.
• 16:46
  Michelle: There are a couple brands that I do, but if you're looking for a very affordable option like vinegar works on almost everything, everything and I know it has a strong smell, but it can it.
• 16:58
  Michelle: It goes away pretty quickly.
• 16:59
  Michelle: But I don't know if you want me to mention brands, but I there are a couple of brands that I do really like.
• 17:05
  Michelle: Laundry detergent is another one.
• 17:08
  Michelle: Skincare Just switching to more natural.
• 17:11
  Michelle: It's just wild the things they put in skincare and skin is our biggest organ and they put so much stuff in those and there's a lot of like affordable options like witch hazel is like an amazing toner.
• 17:28
  Michelle: There's a couple local apothecaries that have like homemade so you don't have to do it yourself.
• 17:34
  Michelle: Homemade like creams and things that are often very affordable too.
• 17:39
  Michelle: Of course, eating organic and not avoiding the dyes, I was.
• 17:44
  Michelle: It was wild to me.
• 17:46
  Michelle: A couple weeks ago I bought my daughter pickles.
• 17:48
  Michelle: I thought pickles are the most innocent snack.
• 17:52
  Michelle: What could they put in pickles?
• 17:54
  Michelle: And I look there was yellow dye in it.
• 17:56
  Michelle: I'm like why would you put that in my daughter's pickles?
• 18:07
  Carrie: Just being watching things like that dyes and dyes is a big one.
• 18:08
  Carrie: Yeah, I feel like for me we've just taken the small steps and every once in a while I'll wash my hair with a non-natural product because I'm like mom just needs a minute to self-care.
• 18:19
  Carrie: But I just recently had to buy deodorant for my nine-year-old.
• 18:23
  Carrie: I'm thinking what do I have to?
• 18:25
  Carrie: So I had to research these.
• 18:26
  Carrie: But these pieces come along to think about what we're putting in our body, what we're putting on our bodies, and yeah, it's nice to see like other companies are.
• 18:37
  Carrie: Start companies are there.
• 18:38
  Carrie: We have options.
• 18:39
  Carrie: Now we're gluten-free and dairy-free in our house, as well as diet-free, and it's not necessarily by choice.
• 18:46
  Carrie: Our my husband is has, we think, celiacs.
• 18:48
  Carrie: We're not sure at the level, but yeah, so we've noticed like behavioral changes in our kids with the food dyes and some gluten.
• 18:56
  Carrie: I believe like just observing our kids and observing ourselves and see how we feel when we eat certain things or put certain products on our bodies, and that's a huge piece.
• 19:09
  Michelle: Yeah, how you feel says it all.
• 19:11
  Michelle: I often go by just how I feel as well and how things feel in my system and it is interesting too, and I've been researching a little bit about this recently is like when, like my mom she's really used to I'm using plugins, because that's just what we've been talking about, but she's really used to that.
• 19:28
  Michelle: But when I'm around it, I'm like, oh my God, like this does not feel good.
• 19:33
  Michelle: But I've been reading there is a level of getting used to, like when you drink alcohol and you build up that tolerance, but it's still affecting your system.
• 19:42
  Michelle: It's the same thing with certain chemicals too.
• 19:45
  Michelle: So, like she, I'm sure if she like took all of them out and then brought them back in, she might feel differently around them.
• 19:52
  Michelle: But there is that kind of as well.
• 19:56
  Michelle: It gets built up.
• 19:57
  Michelle: But yeah, I will say to this process it's not an overnight thing.
• 20:02
  Michelle: I think a lot of people think they have to change everything all at once and I would say it's taken me like 10 years to really even get to this point.
• 20:12
  Michelle: It's one thing and the next thing and the next thing, so it's important to be gentle with that.
• 20:19
  Carrie: Yeah, it's totally true.
• 20:20
  Carrie: I do believe in the.
• 20:21
  Carrie: Tolerance is built for sure, especially with air fresheners as an example, but you just don't smell it because you're so used to it.
• 20:29
  Carrie: There's a huge piece, for I don't know if people believe in it, but everybody believes, has their own beliefs.
• 20:36
  Carrie: But with intuition and hearing your intuition, there's an idea that the cleaner that we eat, the cleaner that we live and the cleaner that we put things in our bodies like less drinking, healing your gut, all of these health pieces can help us.
• 20:52
  Carrie: Your intuition more so.
• 20:54
  Carrie: It's interesting to think about the more that we're working with our bodies, the more connected we can be too yes, absolutely, and your nervous system really is connected with that intuition piece too.
• 21:08
  Michelle: And when you're less clouded by adrenaline and your nervous system being in this fight or flight state, you are able to connect to that intuition and have more aligned choices with what your system really wants or likes.
• 21:28
  Michelle: I love that.
• 21:29
  Carrie: You brought that out.
• 21:30
  Carrie: Yeah, I hadn't thought about that, but there are so many modalities that help us to connect and help us to calm our monkey minds.
• 21:39
  Carrie: I call it with my kids and I love this idea of using chiropractic health and techniques for helping us to connect and helping us to calm our pieces of our minds for kids and adults.
• 21:54
  Carrie: Thank you so much, Michelle, or yeah, for being here today.
• 22:03
  Carrie: It's been so fun chatting with you and I wanted to ask you this has been my year of passion.
• 22:06
  Carrie: Do you have anything that you're passionate about with your work and that you're living out right now?
• 22:12
  Michelle: I just love when people come in and say that their system or their life is changing.
• 22:21
  Michelle: I love seeing their own healing power and healing abilities be able to shine through and see their own system Just make those changes, like that story I shared with you before.
• 22:35
  Michelle: Or people having clear connection to their body, awareness, their intuition, and just seeing that lights me up.
• 22:43
  Michelle: So that is what I am passionate in my profession about.
• 22:48
  Carrie: Yeah, I love that.
• 22:49
  Carrie: That's so lovely that you get to have that receiving piece when you're giving.
• 22:53
  Carrie: It's really cool yes.
• 22:56
  Carrie: Thanks so much for chatting with us today.
• 22:58
  Carrie: Have a great day.
• 22:59
  Michelle: Thank you, you too.
• 23:00
  Michelle: Thank you so much.
• 23:02
  Carrie: That's a wrap.
• 23:03
  Carrie: Thanks so much for tuning in.
• 23:04
  Carrie: Changemakers.
• 23:05
  Carrie: This is Keri, and if you haven't done a review for us five stars and a little few words about what you've enjoyed in our podcast episodes, we would really appreciate it.
• 23:15
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• 23:21
  Carrie: At info at heart to heart lifecom, we also have a brand new website which we're super excited to share.
• 23:28
  Carrie: It's heart to heart lifecom.
• 23:31
  Carrie: Thanks so much for tuning in and happy life, happy times.
• 23:35
  Carrie: Change maker families.