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#149: Miriam Hussey: How to Reconnect With Your Inner Light and Feel More Balanced
1.2k Plays3 months ago
In this episode, I am joined by wellness expert and author Miriam Hussey for a conversation about reconnecting with yourself, creating more balance, and finding your inner light again. Miriam shares the core message behind her book Light Up and her mission to help people feel more connected, calm, and empowered in their everyday lives.
We explore why so many of us live in “head mode,” constantly rushing, and how shifting into a more heart-centred, values-led way of living can transform both health and happiness. Miriam breaks down how the body, mind, and soul work together, and why true wellbeing depends on nurturing all three.
You’ll hear practical, down-to-earth tools for slowing down, managing stress, supporting emotional health, and creating moments of calm in a busy world. The conversation also looks at how childhood beliefs shape adult behaviour, the importance of rest, the role of breathwork, and how small daily choices can make a big difference.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Miriam Hussey
01:10 Miriam's Mission and Philosophy
02:37 The Importance of Pressing Pause
04:43 Navigating Social Media and Overwhelm
05:52 The Power of Slowing Down
08:28 Connecting with Your True Self
14:55 Body, Mind, and Soul Connection
16:34 Movement as Medicine
20:41 The Role of Breath and Meditation
26:54 Practical Tips for Daily Mindfulness
33:15 The Importance of Rest and Recovery
34:06 Lightness, Love, and Laughter
35:09 Nourishment and Connection
35:45 Engagement and Emotional Release
36:28 Balancing Work and Health
39:05 The Power of Small Changes
39:44 Embracing Imperfection
48:29 Understanding Core Beliefs
55:12 Aligning Values with Lifestyle
01:00:24 Final Thoughts and Resources
Links & Resources:
- Connect with me on Instagram here
- Learn more about KHH coaching here
- Connect with Miriam on Instagram here
- Learn more about Soul Space here
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
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Transcript
Introduction to Miriam Hussey and Holistic Health
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health podcast. In today's episode, I sit down with Miriam Hussey. Miriam is a qualified pharmacist who, after 10 plus years in traditional pharmacy, transitioned into the world of health and wellness. She is co-founder of the movement and platform Soul Space, which brings together mind, body and soul approaches to health and performance.
00:00:35
Speaker
Her approach emphasises that true wellness is not about simply treating the symptoms, but it's about the integration of physical, mental and spiritual health. In her debut book, Light Up, she offers realistic, structured and a holistic approach to overall health. And it is all about shining brightly as our true selves.
00:00:56
Speaker
She focuses on the health of the body, the mind and the soul. And this is what we chat about today.
00:01:03
Speaker
Miriam, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to chat today. To start off, I'm going to dive straight in.
Empowerment and Authentic Living for Women
00:01:10
Speaker
What's your mission? Ooh, I like that question. Straight in.
00:01:15
Speaker
My mission is, well, my book is called Light Up and it is to help people all over the world find their light again, to reclaim their power and to stand into their light unapologetically.
00:01:26
Speaker
Flaws and all. And to allow people to see themselves in a loving light again, to help women in particularly come back to their heart, their truth and align to what their soul script is so that they can live a life of greater ease, harmony, peace and joy and come off the treadmill of trying to keep it all together for other people. So really, it's allowing people to come back to their heart, their truth and to refine their light again.
00:01:54
Speaker
That's so good. That is such a hard thing to put into words because it is what we all need. But a lot of the time it's what we don't even realise we need. And that was kind of like when I read your book, I was like, this is the most accurate teaching of what holistic health is that I've ever read in a really kind of connectable, actionable kind of way. But I think...
00:02:20
Speaker
that some of us are are just so lost in the busyness in in all the extra layers that have been added to our lives that we don't even know that that's what we need and I just think that the book has just done such a good job of helping to focus that and for you being able to put that into words like that what's the story behind your mission So I think firstly, I think just to echo what you said, the book really for me was an invitation for people to to press pause on their life.
00:02:47
Speaker
Because as you said, we're going around kind of like sleepwalking through life 100 an hour. And we don't even know that we're distracted, disconnected and living ah ah a head centred life rather than a heart centred life. And we get so caught up in the spin of life and the chaos that we we don't even know that we're not aligned.
00:03:10
Speaker
And this book for me was how can I help people just press pause and just get people to turn the gaze inwards and actually start to become a detective of your own soul and to just scan through your life and ask yourself, well, what is actually nourishing me at this phase and stage in my life and what's not no longer serving me?
00:03:29
Speaker
Because as we grow and evolve and mature through life, our needs differ, our desires change, our priorities shift. And if we're living a life that was once served us maybe 10 years ago, that might not be aligned to what is serving you right now.
00:03:42
Speaker
So that's really what the book is about, that invitation to press pause, to go deeper, to go into that soulful essence of who we are and what truly matters for you in your life. And then my mission behind it is because I've seen so many people, I've worked with a lot of people and I've been in that broken place myself, where you come to that brokenness, where you feel utterly shattered, you feel alone, you feel isolated, you feel useless, you feel like you're not enough, that everyone else has it all together. And why can't I keep up and cope?
00:04:14
Speaker
And it's a horrible place to be. And I've been there and I see so many other women there.
Navigating Social Media and Personal Pace
00:04:19
Speaker
And we live in a world of Instagram where we were just looking at the reels and we don't really see behind the pain. We don't see behind people's closed doors. And often what's most personal is actually most general that we're all struggling in some way to keep it all together, to keep afloat. So the book is about that. And my mission is to help people not feel that way anymore, to find their own way, to find their own light. Yes. And I think with social media as well, as well meaning as a lot of people can be and a lot of information can be quite accurate. But because it's so broad and there's so much information and quite often conflicting information, it can do the opposite to be helpful. And if someone is struggling, like if you're struggling, if you're feeling not good enough and then you're watching all this information, it can be just really, really overwhelming. And it's not helpful because you're like, oh, there's another thing I'm not doing. There's another thing that just I can't fit into my life. That's.
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah. And I just feel less less than because of. And it can be just, as you said, very overwhelming. So for me, less is more. Yeah. and sometimes it's not trying to take on and take on.
00:05:25
Speaker
Actually, in a big part of the book is actually what do you need to let go of? Yeah. What do you just need to surrender to? What do you need to acknowledge and then accept and then go and live your life a like according to what your pace on the treadmill is? So we're trying to keep up to everybody else's pace. But what's your pace at this phase and stage? And and what's your heart asking you for?
00:05:46
Speaker
yeah And sometimes it's not take on, take on, go, go, go. Sometimes it's just let go and say no. Yeah. My number one piece of advice when when clients come to me is we have got to slow down.
Strength in Vulnerability and Stress Management
00:05:59
Speaker
Like slow down is the number one. And like for myself as well, because we all especially I think as mothers or, you know, professional women that we are always go, go, go. And you're right. Like we think we need to do more. We need to lose weight. We need to train for this event. We need to push our career forward.
00:06:16
Speaker
But actually, we need to slow down. We need to ask ourselves why. And that's a really, really hard thing to do, I think, initially. And I think some women, when they come to me, are not ready to slow down. They're they're like, no, I'm here for results. I'm here to get healthy, to lose weight. And it's like that letting go happens eventually. But that can be hard initially. It can be very hard. And and I would say to people that like your vulnerability, your ability to surrender and let go is actually a superpower. And it's actually the sign a sign of huge strength and courage rather than weakness and and flaws. And if people are coming for more results and go, go, go and more gains, what's happening is you're just keeping locked in this constantly fight, flight, sympathetic part of the nervous system, always on, switched on. And that's just going to, if it doesn't manifest in a certain way in your life, you know, in a sense, your mood or your relationships, it can play havoc on your health. So what I'd be saying to people is if you're afraid to slow down or you find it difficult to slow down, that is a red flag in itself that you are already gone, ah like wild horse bolted into the stress dominant way of living, which is their nervous system is constantly switched on. It's meant to be like a light switch. It goes on when there's threat, there's danger, of perceived threat and danger. And then we turn it off.
00:07:32
Speaker
We're meant to rest. We get into the parasympathetic. We're meant to, you know, heal, come back into alignment, come back into harmony. But if we're not getting that balance between press the button and go and then take the foot off the pedal and pause, we're going to get into dysregulated state. And that, you know, just feeds more adrenaline, more coffee, more sugar, more go, go, go. And it's not that, you know, some people think, you know, stress might be all bad. Of course, we need a certain amount of stress to get us up and get us through the day. But where it becomes destructive is if you become reliant on something for your identity, for your clutch, for that kind of coping mechanism.
00:08:15
Speaker
And that might look successful, like might look healthy to the external world. Like, oh, she's really successful. She's really thin. She's really working hard. She's got all these, you know, awards, this, that and the other.
00:08:27
Speaker
But that actually may be destructive because if that's her go to to keep her going, feeding the bear, she's disconnected because if she's not listening to the source of her heart and soul, which wants her to to slow down and rest and come back into harmony and ease.
00:08:43
Speaker
well then, is that positive or is that negative
The Illusion of External Validation
00:08:46
Speaker
to that person? Yeah, and that this is where it's it becomes very unclear as to what's real and what's not on social media as well. And I think this is where people fall into the trap of that, you know, that hedonic treadmill that enough is never going to be enough. Then you'll always be chasing the horizon. You're always chasing another goal and you don't feel fulfilled. And you hear people talk about it all the time in relation to billionaires, for example, that there are very few happy, fulfilled and satisfied billionaires in the world because it's the external. It's looking for more
00:09:14
Speaker
to fill that hole from outside of you and not slowing down a not letting. and Yeah. And, you know, that's it. And, you know, I would always say, you know, even for me when it was the issue is never the issue. So, like, I'm sure it's the same with your clients. They come to you, they want to lose weight, they want to, you know, eat better, et cetera. That's just the external symptom.
00:09:35
Speaker
But what is the underlining root cause that's driving that external behaviour in the first place? So for me, when I had a disordered relationship with food, I went to my therapist thinking, oh, food is the issue. Food is the enemy. Food is the bad guy. When she said to me, you know, food isn't the issue here at all. And I kind of was like, what are you talking about? Of course it is. That's why I'm here.
00:09:54
Speaker
And she was like, that's just an external symptom of a disharmonious relationship with yourself. And if I took the food away from you, which is your coping mechanism, where would you be and what would you do? And I like the panic that came over me because that's what I needed to go to to soothe myself when life got tough, because it was what was my crutch to soothe those emotions I didn't want to face or feel or heal. So it's the same in life. The issue is never really the issue.
Connecting with Inner Fulfillment
00:10:21
Speaker
And we turn to the reason I'm saying this is food can never fulfill us. It can fill us up, but it will never fulfill us. It's the same with money. It's the same with status. It's the same with any of the external things. We think it will fill us up, but nothing can truly fill us up or truly nourish us unless we have a soul that that is at ease.
00:10:41
Speaker
And what is a soul that's at ease? That's when we feel peace within ourselves, irrespective to what's going on in the external world. That's when we can land home into our heart, which is our safe space.
00:10:54
Speaker
And we are all all born into this world with purity, with divine light, with absolute love. That's why people are so drawn to babies when they see them, yet they have nothing.
00:11:06
Speaker
They're bald. They've no hair. They have no clothes. They have no money. they have no possessions. They have nothing, only energy and and spirit and love. And that's what we're drawn to.
00:11:16
Speaker
We lose that through life. We unlearn that through the external world and maybe things happen to you, experiences, traumas, people say things, you hear things, you inherit things. And we lose that connection back to that light, to that love, to that purity, to that divine energy and grace.
00:11:35
Speaker
But it is there within all of us. And that is the essence of your soul. That's who you are. And that's why in the book I speak about we have to go back to connecting to that place. And that inner well of peace that resides within us all. But we can only go there, meet that and feel that if we firstly disconnect from the external world, press pause and be willing and brave enough to go in yeah and move through the layers and the junk and the gunk and the sticky emotions that we have lodged there and move past them and brush past them and clean through them.
00:12:04
Speaker
And then you land into that peaceful space. It's like, you know, after a good workout or after a yoga class and you lie in Shavasana, you feel that bliss, you feel that that lightness, that ease.
00:12:16
Speaker
That's Ananda. That's the soul. That's that inner space of light and love. And back to what you were saying, we turn to go to the external possessions, money awards to try and give us that space and peace. But that will never give us it. We have to go in to find it ourselves.
00:12:33
Speaker
I think with that connection that you talk about as well, and I know this is literally what the book is about, so we're going to kind of dive into that now a little bit. But would you agree that for everyone, there's a different way to connect? Like some people will love meditation. Some people will love yoga. Some people just getting out walking. You know, there's loads of different ways where You're able to switch off the mind a little bit and where you get that feeling of connectedness with yourself, I suppose, that can be different for everyone.
Mind, Body, and Soul Interconnection
00:13:01
Speaker
Definitely. Absolutely. And, you know, one of the concepts I always speak about is bio-individuality, that we are all different and no two people are the same. We may be physically the same in terms of our, you know, our cells, our organs, all of that. But we're stitched together differently through the presence of our soul, your characteristics, your energy. So we're all different. And thankfully so. I mean, if we all did the same thing, look the same way, ate the same foods, like the same things, life would be a very boring place. So spirituality for me is all of the things, the tools, the practices that allow you to connect to the soul.
00:13:36
Speaker
And we can use many different ways to get there. So, as you said, it might be through meditation, through breath work. Some people love to get out on a bike, you know, get out in nature, get up a mountain, get into the sea.
00:13:47
Speaker
You know, that sense of spiritual. Even things like singing, isn't it? You know, musicians, for example, are a perfect example of that as well. doesn't even have to be like exercise. It's anything that allows you to get into your creative flow space.
00:13:59
Speaker
Because when you're in that space, then you drop the shoulders. You naturally unclasp the fear around the chest. You're not in worry, thinking mode, analytic. You're not in that, you know, you're just like that. You let everything fall and drop. What do you love to do that allows you to get off the treadmill of life for a while, to unplug from the busyness and and the stress and strain and allows you to get into that flow space of ease and grace and just something that you love to do? What do you love to do? What brings you joy? What nourishes you? What lights you up? Think about children like we they don't schedule. Oh, I must go and play now and relax and unwind. You know to mean? They just go out on the road and they're just running around free. And like we lose that ability as we get older. And I know that's not always our own our own fault. That's life. That's our society that we live in, that we, you know, we build this. But what I love that with your book as well is like it's a really practical way. Like someone listening now might like, oh, I really need that. I need to find that connection. But I feel so lost. And you've broken the book into three parts, body, mind and soul. And like I'm dying to talk more about this soul stuff. But I think we need to start with talk a little bit more about the body, because I believe that in order to be able to, you know, improve your mental strength, to be able to connect with your soul, it starts with the body, which is a lot of the work that I do is that initial process.
00:15:18
Speaker
and i And I see it time and time again when women come to work with us and they want to get fitter or they want to lose weight or they want to get stronger. And all of a sudden it turns in. like I've had women change careers after, you know, having life changing experiences like and with their health. And i think you have to connect with your body first. Am I correct? Before.
00:15:36
Speaker
Yeah, well, I think I think it can you can come to it in different ways because some people you know, might come might be very soulful and spiritual, but yet yet they're not taking care of their body, you know, and which is not good either, you know. So or some people might be very good on the mind, but they might be very good on their fitness or their soul stuff. So I think it's it's so interconnected and they all loop into one another. So it's not chronological it's not like right I'll work on my body and then we work yeah know it's like this will all happen and it does doesn't it magically kind of intertwines absolutely because as you move the dial in one area you naturally open ah and create space in another area and so on but starting with the body is a very great it's a brilliant space to start because it's the most tangible it's what we see it's what we know when we think of fitness and health we often think of obviously movement and what we're eating and it's able you're able to kind of track it and mark it that little bit more perhaps So it's definitely a wonderful place to
Role of Movement in Emotional Release
00:16:33
Speaker
start. And as you have said, like people have those aha moments in career and then clarity shifts because what you're doing when you and one of the big pillars in the body is is movement as medicine. And what we're doing there, we're not just moving the body for the physical. Of course, it's really important for weight loss and all of that. But what you're doing and the science behind it is incredible. What you're doing is you're moving emotion out of the body.
00:16:58
Speaker
So emotion is energy in motion. It needs to be moved out of the body. And as we start to shift and shake out the stress, shake out the traumas, shake out the anger, the frustration, the irritation, if you're not shaking it out and moving it out, it's getting lodged and stuck in the body. That will affect your mind. That will cause you to feel cloggy in the brain. It will cause you to feel annoyed, irritated. You're lacking in your performance. Everything is affected. And from that place, you can't hear the essence of your soul. You can't open the gateway to the heart to drop into the soul because you're you're possibly so tight and locked in anger and frustration and irritation. So everything feeds one into the other. But when it starts with the body, you know, even with the yoga, so I teach yoga as well, you start with the body. So you get them on the mat and you get them stretching, you get them moving.
00:17:46
Speaker
Then you bring in the breath work, which is the energetics. You can't see the breath. It's invisible, but we all know without it, we're dead. So it's so powerful. So then you bring them. you So you start with the physical, you get them moving, get them stretching. Then you bring the breath in, which drops you into the energetics. And then you start as you do that, you start to bring them into the the non visible things like your thoughts and your emotions. That's why when you're doing training, when you're on a yoga mat, next thing you you realize, oh, my God, my know my mind is really busy. Where are all these thoughts coming from? i never turned off the cooker. I didn't send that email. I didn't all these kind of busy thoughts can pop into your mind.
00:18:23
Speaker
That's because now you're you've brought your awareness inside. But then as you sit with that and move through that and practice non-judgment, non-compassion or compassion, sorry, kindness to self and move through that and you breathe through the exercises, you start to move that emotion out. You start to calm the business of the thoughts in the mind.
00:18:42
Speaker
And then as you get to the end of the class, you feel that endorphins, you feel the bliss, you feel that what's endorphins, it's your own endogenous morphine. You're creating your own pain relief, you're creating your own high, that feeling of I feel great, i get I'm invincible. And what does that do? It builds confidence.
00:18:58
Speaker
And what does that do? It allows you then to create clear clarity in your mind so that you can actually make better decisions that are more aligned to your truth. Hence the person changing the career.
Grounding Practices and Nature's Role
00:19:10
Speaker
yeah And what's that doing then as you breathe and as you relax and as you slow down and drop, you then allow yourself to open the gateway to the soul where you hear gut intuitive messages, where you hear the wisdom from yourself, where you get to actually hear those callings. And the more you do it, that you the more you're able to to tap into it, the easier it gets to tap into it. And like I think the physical side, like doing a yoga class or going for a walk or going to the gym and lifting weights is a great way. If you're stressed, if you're busy, if you have a busy mind to be able to tap into it. I find it very hard to like if I was to lie down on the floor here now and start breathing, I would find it very hard.
00:19:48
Speaker
to connect with myself. I find like what I would often do, I live by the sea, so I would leave my house and I go for a walk and be about two kilometres down along the sea. And then there's this lovely spot and I'll sit and I'll kind of you know breathe in the sea a little bit. But it takes a good 20 minutes or so to get there. I don't two kilometres, but you know it takes about 20 minutes to get down there. But the 20 minutes of walking like I don't put any earphones. Yeah, it grounds me. I don't put earphones in or anything. you know, I'm surrounded by nature and, you know, my thoughts are going on. Sometimes I'm anger walking or whatever, you know, if I'm really stressed and feel the shoulders start to to drop.
00:20:21
Speaker
And by the time I get there, i can actually feel the energy moving through my body and I'll sit there and I'll like just spend a few minutes by the sea. And then I so i actually walk slower then on the way back, which is interesting. Because you've regulated the nervous system, you see. So you've come into the parasympathetic, which is...
00:20:38
Speaker
More slow and, you know, but so for somebody like you who finds it really hard, and it's a really good question. It's one i I often get all the time is like, I find it really hard to meditate. I find it really hard to just sit and breathe. I get fishy. My mind gets really racy.
00:20:53
Speaker
I would say to people, that's OK. And it's very normal and very human. And you're not meant to stop your thoughts because you were stopped your thoughts, you'd be dead. So what you're trying to do is just become aware that and just not judge them. Just say, OK, isn't that interesting that has come? And what I would say is a really good starting point for people like that. If you don't have, say, the 20 minutes to get out and do the walk, but you really want to ground yourself and you really want to do some meditation or some breath work. is you can just do a body scan because that really helps if you're that way inclined to kind of, ah so because it gives you a focus point and it brings you into the body.
00:21:29
Speaker
So you're starting to scan through the body and then you're starting to check in with, well, how am I feeling today? Where am I feeling tight? Where am I feeling heat? And, you know, where am i feeling these sensations in the body? Because every sensation is just information. Yeah.
00:21:42
Speaker
And then as you do the body scan, that begins to drop and you'll start to release and relax. And then you get into the breathing and you can do that in five minutes. And it absolutely can transform how you're feeling and clear your mind and just bring you into the heart.
00:21:58
Speaker
I think for me, the essence of the book is how can we come out of the head and into the heart more in our lives? Because the heart is the wisdom. If we're listening to the heart, we won't go wrong. It's the head because the head is ego. We've got to quieten the mind, don't we, to be able to listen to the heart.
Breathwork and Stress Management
00:22:13
Speaker
it's The longest journey is from the head to the heart. But, you know, also by activating the vagus nerve, which, you know, is the longest cranial ah nerve in the parasympathetic side of the nervous system. It's that wandering nerve, the vagabond. That's why vagus nerve vagabond wandering. And it starts from your head and moves down by the side of the ears, down through the throat, down, you know, past here and all the way down into your digestive organs. And it literally touches all the major organs within the body. And that's why it's so powerful when you activate that, it allows you to calm and drop.
00:22:48
Speaker
So slow, deep breathing, making your exhale longer than your inhale. That's why cold water immersion therapy, even getting an ice cube and running it down the side of the throat, either side of the neck or splashing water on your face or cold shower. These are all activating the vagus nerve, humming, gargling, singing. They're all vibrating here. Is this why, sorry to interrupt, is this why singing and then like in certain religions, like the religions, yeah, chanting or even song and chorus and choir and stuff is such a big part of religion. Is that why? 100%. If you look through any religions all around the years, they will all have things like incense,
00:23:24
Speaker
smell. ye That helps to calm the nervous system, to ground. They will all have chanting or singing or some sort of vibration of the throat, which is activating the vagus nerve. They will all use the symbol of prayer at the heart, where you're bringing your hands at your heart center, which is aligning the right and left side of the brain to help you to come into synchronicity, harmony, balance. balancing the nervous system.
00:23:51
Speaker
They will all have some sort of kneeling down, bowing down, you know, so it's like, what am I releasing? What am I going to let go of? They will all have time in quiet reflection. And so they will all use the breath. Like it' it's when you look at it, they're all using the same things, but in different ways. And there's a science behind that. And that's because you're activating that vagus nerve. So the site this is where science and spirituality meet.
00:24:15
Speaker
And it's where science is now catching up with the ancient wisdom to actually clarify and justify why they're doing and why it works. And it's same thing. This like everything, whether it's the universe, whether it's God, whether it's science, like it is all the same thing. The same principles explained in different ways that make sense to different people.
00:24:33
Speaker
Quick announcement. I have just launched a €4.99 per month podcast membership on Patreon. Inside it, you'll get exclusive episodes that walk you through my full coaching curriculum.
00:24:46
Speaker
The exact step-by-step process that my clients follow to lose weight, to get stronger and to build routines that actually stick. Now, there's no community or accountability, but you get the full roadmap so that you can follow it yourself.
00:25:00
Speaker
If you want the structure without the coaching price tag, tap the link in the show notes. And that's what I love about it. Have you actually ever read the book? Is it Breath? I don't know. Breath or Breathe? Is it Gymnester? Nestor? Oh, I know it. Yes, I've listened to it on audio. Yes. That was mind blowing to me. Like the power of the breath. have the science behind But even in relation to it, it sticks in my mind in relation to what he says about like religions, about that, about prayer and about singing. And it's that long exhale. You know, the priest says the first part, like to say, take the Hail Mary, for example, in Catholicism, you know, and he does the first part and the Holy Mary, Mother God, and the Holy But that's the whole, I always wondered as a child, was like, what is the point of this? We're not really thinking about what we're saying.
00:25:45
Speaker
But it's the deep breath and it's the saying, it's olo like, and in other religions, there's other, you know, with prayers and chanting, it's it's that similar pattern of the amount of seconds inhale and the amount of seconds exhale. And that singing is has a similar effect. And it's all the same thing about slowing down the breath. And yeah just so it just blew my mind. It is mind blowing. yeah Because today as well, we're,
00:26:07
Speaker
Because we're kind of in that rat race of running, running, running, go, go, go, it's affecting our respiratory system and our breath rate. So we're, you know, we're very breathing shallowly from the top of the lungs. We're not using the full depth of the ah of the lungs. And when you're in that kind of rapid breathing state, you're now sending a signal to your nervous system that there's threat and there's danger.
00:26:29
Speaker
which keeps you locked in the fight or flight. And then you keep scanning your environment. And it's almost like we become addictive addicted to the hormones of stress. We do. yeah We become addicted. Like if you think of your life and you have a lovely morning and you say, say, for example, have nothing on or you've like, oh, this is great. What do we do? Pick up the phone. We try and find something. don't know how to be bored anymore. to be yeah To get addicted to, to rev up the stress because we've become so addicted to it. So what we're really trying to do is if you can even the very active, you can only take this one thing away from this podcast.
00:27:02
Speaker
Can you try and incorporate five slow, deep diaphragmatic or belly breaths into your day regularly and often throughout the day? Because what you're doing is when you can stop.
00:27:13
Speaker
pause and take a slow, deep belly breath. You're now breathing into the the depth of your lungs. Now you're sending a signal, a different signal to your your nervous system that now Miriam's safe.
00:27:25
Speaker
Because Miriam wouldn't be able to stop, pause and take a slow, deep breath if she was in danger or threat. Because we fight or flight, we either put the fisticuffs on and we fight or flight, we we run the hell away. Or we procrastinate and pause and numb out and in our freeze. So if you can pause slowly, take a deep belly breath, you're sending a signal to the nervous system that you're safe and that regulates your nervous system. And you can do that within five slow, deep breaths, which can be done less than a minute. And I think making that like a habit that you do going to bed, because like I remember when when I was really struggling with anxiety in my 20s and, you know, when I was having panic attacks and I remember it like my therapist at the time trying to get me to do deep breathing, but I couldn't. It panicked me further. And it made me lightheaded initially. But that was in a state of panic. Like, you know, I was so far gone at that stage, you know, I needed quite a lot of help at the time. But now at the stage of my life that I'm at now, when I notice myself, will notice that I'll start rushing around and I'm like, well, I'm talking really fast and like and suddenly I'm like, oh, the shoulders are... yes You know, and you notice those things. So I like physically slow myself down and I will do that then. Like, you know, I'm like, OK, just walk a little bit slower, Kate. Nice, deep breaths. And I will do that. But I think if anyone is feeling quite tense all the time, making it a daily practice that you do going to bed, because doesn't matter if you feel a little bit lightheaded from doing it, you're lying down.
00:28:43
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I love that idea. And what I would say to people, you know, is if the more you do it, it's like anything going to the gym, like you're not just going to get your abs after one session. You know, it has to be consistent and regularly. it's the same with like we we tend to wash the external world. So we get up in the morning, we'll wash your face, we'll wash your hair, we'll brush your teeth, we'll clean the external world because that's what people see. But do you clean your internal world?
00:29:08
Speaker
Do you wash and cleanse your mind? Do you wash and cleanse the soul? and simple practices that are really powerful like that, the breathwork. And i would be saying to people, scaffold it on to things that you're already doing. So it doesn't become another thing i have to do. It doesn't become another overwhelming thing. Oh, my God. And everything, as you will know, in the book that I'm a huge, huge advocate for is are practices that don't cost anything, that can be done anywhere in the world at any time and that are and that that don't take up much time.
00:29:38
Speaker
So the breath. So get up in the morning before you get out of bed. Can you stop, pause, take five deep breaths? When you're in the shower, can you take five deep breaths? Before you turn the ignition of the car or get on the dart wherever you're going, can you take five deep breaths? Before you open your laptop or do your work, can you take five deep breaths?
00:29:55
Speaker
Before you sit and have your lunch, can you pause and be grateful for the food, say a little grace, take five deep breaths, mindful eating? before you close down your laptop, five deep breaths, before you get home in the car, before you go to bed. So therefore you're scaffolding it throughout the day. So you're not getting this like massive surge in cortisol all day. And then you get home in the evening and you're absolutely tired, but wired and you can't shut down. Yeah. So we want to be regulating that throughout the day, similar to what we want to do with our blood sugar levels. We don't want to be spiking them all day long. And then we're like this the end We're in constant stress. Then our body is because of it. Yeah. Yeah.
00:30:28
Speaker
So it's just trying to do it often, a little often and regular and make make triggers to, you know, scaffold it on things that you're doing. So you remember to do it. And that way it can be really game changing because then you're more grounded, more you're more centered.
00:30:43
Speaker
The external world will still be there. The triggers will still be there. You'll still get challenged. Someone will say something to, you know, like the shit, excuse my French, will still be there at oftentimes.
00:30:54
Speaker
But your reaction and your response will be different and you're less likely to fly off the handle. You're less likely to lose the rag. Or if you do, you catch and repair much quickly because you now you have awareness. You can't shift or change anything in your life without firstly having the awareness.
00:31:10
Speaker
Yeah. Awareness is everything. But we get awareness by becoming more mindful and pausing and reflecting and breathing. And that allows us to check in. How am I doing? How am I showing up?
Balancing Rest and Activity
00:31:21
Speaker
What's the energy I'm bringing to my world?
00:31:23
Speaker
Am I a Tasmanian devil going around coffee, sugar, 100 miles an hour? Am I angry? Am I like chipping my shoulder energy? Or am I kind and loving and compassionate? So what's the energy I'm casting?
00:31:35
Speaker
yeah And often we don't pause to ask ourselves that question. And what do I need to let go of to simplify things a little bit as well? Simplify, surrender, slow. yeah They're my three S's. Simplify, surrender, slow. Simplify, surrender, slow.
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah. In relation. So we might be the name of my next book. Oh, there we go. yeah you heard for sure But in relation to the body, I suppose. So we've spoken a good bit about stress, which obviously then ties really closely in with rest and recovery, which I know is another huge part of your book and nutrition in particular.
00:32:06
Speaker
I suppose the gut brain axis and the importance of like good nourishment for energy and for you know feeling good and mental health as well as physical health. Let's talk a little bit about rest first, will we?
00:32:17
Speaker
Absolutely. Obviously, slowing down, simplifying, dealing with your stress a little bit better, learning to do a bit of breath work and just, you know, connect with yourself a little bit, using movement for that as well.
00:32:30
Speaker
Then when it comes to rest and recovery. So I think it's like it's like anything. if people often ask about how do I get balance in my life, whether it's between work and home or whether it's working out and resting. So it's all in coming back to balance. And, you know, if you even look at the word balance and you use the letters as an acronym, it's a wonderful way to bring you more into balance, which will bring you more into that rest recovery. So B is for breaths, boundaries and breaks. yeah So, you know, taking breaks regularly and often Saying no if you need to, you know, checking in with what actually, you know, every decision you make, ask yourself, will this bring me closer to resting and recovering and healing and coming back into a place of inner ease and grace?
00:33:11
Speaker
Or will this keep me locked in the treadmill of stress and strain and struggle? So breaks, boundaries, breath, balance, aids for acknowledgement and awareness. So we can't even get to a place of rest if we're not aware that we even need it. And we're just going. It's like, the you know, an athlete on the track going 400 metres sprint, busting it out, adrenaline, cortisol.
00:33:34
Speaker
But imagine if they didn't know that to get off the track at the end of the race and rest and recover and rehab. What will happen? They'd burn out. You know, they wouldn't perform. And sometimes we're like the athlete on the track and we're just never getting off.
00:33:45
Speaker
So that acknowledgement of where you're at, that level of compassion and understanding that sometimes it's OK to say no. Sometimes it's OK to pull back and knowing that yeah it's not a defeat or it's not a failure. It's actually a huge stepping up into your performance world, because if you're not resting and recovering, you're not going to perform.
00:34:06
Speaker
L is for that sense of lightness, love, laughter. Are you allowing that in your life? We often lose this part, don't we? We do, as adults. Massively, because we're so, and myself included, i have to be so conscious of that. And we get so blocked out then. And then because if we're not moving and if we're eating over processed food with the gut, our serotonin levels are going to be lowered. 90 to 95% of our serotonin, which is your feel good, happy hormone, is made in your gut.
00:34:34
Speaker
If you're highly stressed, if you're not resting, if you're eating highly processed food, your serotonin levels are going to be down. And then it doesn't matter what you're gaining in in a successful world in your career or what money you're getting or rewards because you won't feel the joy of it. And that's why it brings us back to earlier what we were saying.
00:34:52
Speaker
Nothing. What's what's enough then? Because we can't feel it. We can't acknowledge it. We can't be happy for it. Well, then we're just going to be chasing the next thing. So that comes back to L, love, laughter, lightness and and looking after the gut. So we move through battle. I'll be here all day if I go on to. But like a A N C E. So N is for nourishment, which goes to that gut place, as I mentioned there. C is connection and community.
00:35:15
Speaker
Have you people and support around you? and Because if you have really loving, kind people around you, who will call you bluff? and are good enough friends to challenge you in a healthy way.
00:35:29
Speaker
That's what you need. You don't need someone, you know, saying, oh, aren't doing great there? Good girl. Well done. And you're flogged. yeah You need someone who'll pull you up and say, you know what, Kate, I see you're struggling. I see you're doing too much and I think you need to rest.
00:35:42
Speaker
That's what we need. Yeah. So community and connection. And then the last one is E for engagement and emotional intelligence and release. We need to be able to release these emotions so that we're not bottling them up. We need to be able to get into that flow state. And that's why was saying, you know, if you are exercising, if you are doing your yoga, if you are getting out for your swim, do all those amazing things. Move the emotion out and then allow five minutes to rest at the end.
00:36:07
Speaker
So my husband, Gerry, worked a lot of sports teams, boxing. And what they would do is they train really hard and then they'd all lie on the floor and they'd do breathing and meditation at the end. That's the rest and recovery. That is key.
00:36:19
Speaker
So we can't be just going one way, one way. It's a two way system. And if we're only going one way, we know it'll end up and we know where that'll end. It'll burn out. Yeah. And I'm reading a book at the minute, actually, where it's and they're talking a lot about that, you know, as it's it's actually more of a business book, but I think it's very relevant to our lives as well. It's not about like as we grow on our whatever journey it is that we're on, it's not about more and more and more that we need to start thinking about things a bit more like athletes that, you know, athletes will perform. They have performance days, their games, their you know competitions, but then they rest a lot as well. You know, that they that's And they warm up. recovery and rest and they warm up. yeah And they have a lot of time off. yeah And sleep becomes hugely important because that's what makes the greatness. And that's what a lot of us ordinary people don't do yeah is that recovery. Yeah. I remember like when I first started working in the corporate world, and coming from pharmacy, you know, working 10 years as community pharmacist. And then I started to obviously branch into the work I'm doing now, integrative health and looking at
00:37:26
Speaker
this whole mind, body, soul and how important it is. And so started to do some corporate work and talks and workshops and all of that. And I was absolutely like, I couldn't believe it because I would have played a sport as well growing up. And my husband, Jerry, would work but a lot with sports teams.
00:37:43
Speaker
And you see what it means to be a peak performer. I mean, you do exactly what you said. You have to rest. They eat really well. They sleep really well. They they mind themselves, you know.
00:37:54
Speaker
And i ah I was going in to corporate space. I was just going, oh, my God, people were drinking the bottles of Coke. There was everything with coffee, croissants. And we're looking at helping people perform at their best.
00:38:06
Speaker
People are falling asleep. People are exhausted because they're not moving. They're not getting exercise. They're not getting fresh air. They're eating processed, highly processed food. And they're working around the clock with no breaks. so How are you meant to perform? So it just goes back to, you know, simplicity, you know,
00:38:24
Speaker
It's the simple things in life. Are you resting? Are you eating well? Are you drinking enough water? Have you fun in your life? Have you people that you feel safe enough to talk to when you're not feeling great? And are you prioritising what's in your heart? Are you listening to your soul?
00:38:37
Speaker
And these are the things that really shape us and shift us. But sometimes we just don't allow ourselves that time and place, space to press pause, to go inward and actually ask ourselves those questions.
00:38:49
Speaker
Yeah, and that can feel overwhelming at the start and like life can be really hard and it can be really busy if you've got a full time job, you've got kids, you know, there's after school activities, there's work commitments, you know, and like some people are, you know, commuting, sitting at desks for eight hours a day But Like what you've said there about just little things, the little bits of breath work throughout the day. that I would say the same when it comes to walking. Little movement breaks throughout the day. It doesn't have to be a five kilometre walk or an hour in the gym or a yoga class if you don't have time.
00:39:17
Speaker
Little bits. I actually started doing a bit of yoga every evening. I was doing it in the morning time, but I actually find it better for me in the evening time. I got that down dog app and I just do 15 minutes yoga before I get into bed.
00:39:28
Speaker
And I just do slow paced yoga. And it's but i for me, that's. I feel it's more doable for me than trying to squeeze in a few yoga classes a week. yeah It works better for me. So it's about sprinkling in and it doesn't have to be it's not about being perfect. It's not everything. One hundred percent. percent And that's the one thing i always want to share with people is that I absolutely am imperfect and nobody is.
00:39:51
Speaker
And if somebody is pretending to be perfect, they're not because we all have our flaws and that's what makes us unique. And that's what makes us beautiful, I believe.
00:40:02
Speaker
yeah And i think that, you know, there's strength in your softness and there is graciousness in your in your flaws and there's wisdom in those cracks.
00:40:14
Speaker
because it's it's in the cracks that we learn, that we mature, that we evolve. And often you can't help other people through stuff unless you've walked those cracks yourself or you've felt those cracks and strains yourself.
00:40:28
Speaker
And then you can help other people navigate through it. And if everything anything in life is, we have to face something to feel it so that we can heal it.
Confronting Truths and Emotional Cleansing
00:40:40
Speaker
if we're If we're running, if we're racing, if we're distracted, if we're disjointed, we are just running from the truth of ourselves. And sometimes that is hard, Kate, because once you hear something and once you hear your truth, you can never unhear it.
00:40:56
Speaker
And often when you hear something, when you get that penny penny drop, that aha moment or when your soul speaks to you or sometimes if your soul screams to you, it often requires change.
00:41:08
Speaker
And this is where the ego doesn't want to change. The ego wants to keep you locked in the familiar. It wants to keep you in the known. It's just trying to keep you safe. But this known place might be a destructive place that is in serving or nourishing you.
00:41:22
Speaker
This is why you see people staying stuck in a job or relationship. But if it's if it's not a healthy one, they still stay there because the fear of moving past it and out of it is so overwhelming. So I would say to people, we have one incredibly short life here in this lifetime, in this body, in this vessel around the clock, around the sun.
00:41:44
Speaker
And
00:41:47
Speaker
How do you want to use that? yeah Do you want to be at your deathbed regrets? Or do you want to say, you know what, I give it a shot? And the biggest thing is we often think we have a fear of failing, but it's not the fear of failure, it's the fear of a voice coming up within ourselves and saying, well, you're not enough.
00:42:05
Speaker
Yeah. And that's the voice that we are afraid of. But what if you are enough and what if it worked out much better than you could ever imagine? And knowing that even if it does flop and fail, you go again and you learn from that. everything, like I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, the good, the bad.
00:42:24
Speaker
And, you know, we we that's the word surrender that you've used. We need to surrender to a certain degree to to to the present moment. But it it's right. It's what we take from it. It's It's our response rather than reacting. If we learn to respond and be like, OK, this is a little bit shit at the minute. I'm not particularly enjoying this phase of my life or this day or this week or whatever. It's like, what's wrong? What's off balance here? What can I learn from it? What can I do differently tomorrow or differently from this moment? or And it's not about making a big, long list of, oh, now I'm going to you know do X, Y and z It's like, yeah, noted.
00:43:00
Speaker
Right. Let's move forward. Yeah. Yeah. And one thing I use completely in all the time in my life and especially with my kids is the fracture and repair model. So if there's a fracture, which there's going to be, you know, and you get triggered, the kids won't put their shoes on, they won't get out the door, they won't brush their teeth. You're like, i've asked them 900 million times and and then you lose lose your rag. and ah And that has happened. And, you know, and I think it probably happened everyone listening to this at some point or different situations. But if there's a fracture, the awareness comes in.
00:43:34
Speaker
And then how quickly can you repair? So how quickly can you go back, give a hug, say, I'm sorry, reconnect, rekindle. And that is a game changer for me. And that's not just with parents and and children. It's with everyone and anyone.
00:43:47
Speaker
If there's a fracture, how quickly can you repair it? Because otherwise it lingers. And then if you have those lingering emotions and especially guilt or shame, these are very low vibrational frequency energies. And they're ones that really, really we don't want to be carrying around in the body. That's yeah, it's what gets in, and you know, sticks in there and makes us sick, isn't it? Absolutely. And and people often say, well, what's the difference between shame and guilt? They're the same and they often get kind of woven into one another.
00:44:15
Speaker
But guilt is I've done something wrong. Yeah. Shame is deeper. Shame is i am wrong. And we don't want to be carrying those around because our cells in our body are, I always say, the fact of a pair of ears and they're listening to everything we're saying they're feeling every emotion we're feeling.
00:44:35
Speaker
So asking yourself, are your cells dancing around in your body with harmony? Are they smiling? Are they singing? Or are they wilting in in that toxicity of shame and guilt? So if you are listening and you're feeling that, what can you do to release that and how can you deconstruct the emotion and move it out? And I would always say to people, just move it out in a healthy way.
00:44:56
Speaker
So that might be moving it out through actual physical movement. It might be breathing it out like like really big, audible exhale sigh, like the surrendering sigh or lion's breath. where you're really letting out that anger, frustration, that shame, that guilt that you might be pent up or holding.
00:45:13
Speaker
Can you journal it out, write it out? It's a wonderful way of just dumping all the garbage from your brain and just like literally open the floodgates and let it out. Let it go. Burn it. Throw it in the bin afterwards. You don't need to hold on to it. Can you cry it out?
00:45:26
Speaker
A good cry or talk it out? I'm such a crier. I cry for everything. Great. But I feel like really healthy. Me and my sister the same. We're always like, we're a little bit crazy. It's like, no, I think we're healthy. You know, it's just if I'm angry, if I'm stressed, like anything will always be tears. I know. it's a good way to let it out. always say like tears are like vomiting for your emotional world. you have a bad tummy bug and you get sick, you feel better. like, it's gone. You've moved it out. Same with that. It's a way of releasing. It's a way of shedding. It's a way of purifying. It's a really like a cleansing process. And another thing I would always say to people like a cleansing process is if you've had a shitty day and you don't want to go to bed carrying that energy with you because we actually wake up in the energy we've slept in. So have a bath, have a shower and literally symbolically use the water as a way of just cleansing off your day.
00:46:12
Speaker
washing it away. Let it go. Let that sticky conversation you had that, you know, thing that's reeling in your head. Just let it go. Wash it away. And it's just a wonderful way. And then get into your jammies, put on some music, do meditation, whatever, and just just clear it off. But I think as well about like negative emotions and like obviously come from negative thoughts and in relation to negative thoughts, I think if Again, another habit when you notice negative thoughts coming into your mind, not judging yourself for it, but just like saying to yourself, just because I think this doesn't mean it's true.
00:46:47
Speaker
Yeah. Fact checks. Fact check for story. changing. Yeah. Because we just, it thoughts are only damaging if we believe them, if we are to attach ourselves to them and if we allow ourselves to to be defined by them.
00:46:59
Speaker
It's OK to have the negative thoughts. We all have them. We all have a moment where the self-talk gets a little bit dodgy in there and you need to be like, whoa. Yeah. ok I use the cancel, clear, delete. So, you know, if you have your laptop open and it starts to get a bit slow or you get that like, you know, thing loading, you're like, oh, my God, what's going on? And you go cancel, clear, delete, like end task. Yeah.
00:47:19
Speaker
So I use that with with that idea of if you get this overwhelming negative thoughts coming in, cancel, clear, delete. OK. I'm not going to push it away and suppress it. I'm going to see that it's there. It showed up for a reason. OK, I hear you. I see you. Welcome it in. And then say, OK, cancer clearly, move you on and then place into that space a new thought. So that's where affirmations come in or declarations for life or your mantras. So having a one line mission statement or one line mantra is really powerful to ground you and bring you back into your intention and your desired outcome. So then when you have like, say, for example, what's your intention for today? I want to be the calm mother or I want to be the...
00:48:03
Speaker
strong lady or the gentle lady or whatever it is, you know, you're having that intention, that vision, that desire. And then every time you make a decision, you ask yourself, will that decision bring me closer to that calm, grounded mother today? Yeah.
00:48:18
Speaker
If it is wonderful, do it. If it's not, let it go. So it's just bringing you in. And then back to the thoughts, the thoughts feed from your emotions. But what feeds your emotions? it's It stems deeper. Again, it comes from your beliefs.
00:48:32
Speaker
And your beliefs come from your values. said this to me. This blew my mind as well, because I always in my head was like, your thoughts create your emotions.
Impact of Childhood Beliefs
00:48:40
Speaker
And when I had Jerry on the podcast, he was like, well, actually, it's your beliefs.
00:48:45
Speaker
And I suppose your beliefs are thoughts that you emotionally attach to really. are that it Or is there a difference? I would say the bottom. So if you think of it like the triangle, it's in the book, you see. The bottom layer, your your core values and your your beliefs. So what do you believe to be true about yourself?
00:49:02
Speaker
And what do you believe to be true about your world? They are shaped between the ages of zero and seven. Yeah. So that's when we're in theta brainwave. That's when we're in downloading. That's hypnotic.
00:49:12
Speaker
So that's why we see kids learn so quickly, pick up languages, learn how to walk, cycle bikes, all of these things so quickly in those early formative years because their brainwave is different to ours as adults. They're in theta. So if you go and get hypnotized, that's what they do. They bring you down into this theta brainwave. So that's where you download things and absorb things really quickly. That's why I always say kids like sponges. They pick up everything. So that's the belief. That's your core values. Then from that stems your emotions Then from that will stem your thoughts. And then from that stems your behaviors, your actions, your lifestyle.
00:49:47
Speaker
So that's why people come at the tip at the pi of the pyramid with their lifestyle being the issue. I want to lose the weight. The food is the issue. The relationship is the issue. The money is the issue, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. No, that's not the issue. You have to root down to actually the stem root belief beneath the thoughts, beneath the emotions to the core belief. What do you believe to be true about yourself? This is why it's so hard for people to change, isn't it? Like it's why like true change can like it. And it's so doable, but it's so it can be so difficult because those beliefs are so deep rooted. And why i suppose inner child work is so powerful.
00:50:23
Speaker
And that's why the integration is so key and important between the mind with the body and the soul, because you can, as we mentioned earlier, using different avenues or tools to get you down into the root to understand. First, you have to crack open.
00:50:37
Speaker
Well, what are my beliefs? What are my core values? What what do I believe to be true about myself in the world? What did I lock in in those early formative years? Yeah, because what I found, like I've done ah a lot of work on this recently and what I found is a lot of beliefs weren't my beliefs. They were my parents beliefs or, you know, things that other people, other children told me when I was younger. And um that's because we absorb that we're taking in. And then what we don't have the brain capacity to decipher what's actually truth and what's not. And what's my truth and what's not. And that's why, you know, you're thinking about and it's not to put shame or guilt on your parents or your caregivers or your teachers because they were only doing what they knew best, given what they were handed down and what they downloaded from their zero to seven years. So it's not to have that. And it's actually one of the pillars in my book, of one of the 11 pillars of building mental fitness of the mind is forgiveness.
00:51:33
Speaker
Because if we're harbouring anger and all of that towards parents or caregivers or teachers or whatever, we are the ones that are holding on to that anger still. And we are the ones that are holding on to that trauma within our bodies. yeah So we are the ones that need to release it and let it go. not You're not going to condone or to free you know to say what was done to you was right. You have every right to be angry. You have every right, all of that.
00:51:58
Speaker
But you're the one that's going to suffer if you keep holding it, not them. So that is one of the biggest pillars. And also just asking yourself, you know, to scan back over your early formative years and ask yourself, what was celebrated in my home?
00:52:11
Speaker
What was frowned upon? What was not spoken about? Who were the people that were celebrated? Who were the people that were shunned? This will give you an idea into the type of energy and maybe programs that you downloaded. You know, and what was the energy around money, finances? You know, money doesn't grow on trees. You know there's these things that get thrown around the place. So what did you hear in locking? And then you spend your adult life trying to outrun them or live them or bring them, you know. So what we would need to do is go back, kind of unlock that and then say, is that my truth or is that not my truth? And then.
00:52:46
Speaker
through neuroplasticity, rewiring your brain, we can create new ways of thinking and being. And that's where the 11 pillars come in so importantly, like your journaling, your meditation, your visualization, your affirmations, you know, really working on becoming aware of your thoughts, your values, and then recrafting your life and reshaping and realigning it to one that feels aligned to your truth and to your soul script.
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah, because if you ask a lot of people, what are your values? Like and put them on the spot. A lot of people won't have thought about that because we're in because we're so busy and we're we're constantly go, go, go. And we're on and like, I suppose we're just subconscious behaviours. And even when you're saying like digging into childhood, like it doesn't have to be all judgment. Like if anything, like, you know, just approaching everything with curiosity and being like,
00:53:35
Speaker
Right. OK, well, actually, when I was growing up, you know, family, spending time together as family was an important value, which I, do you know, which I think is really, really important. And education was important or, you know, whatever, whatever. Sports, security, whatever. Different people have different things. And then like seeing our parents as flawed adults as we are.
00:53:54
Speaker
And being like, they did their best. OK, so maybe this area that we didn't talk about this and we probably should have. Or, you know, it's not judging. Like you said, it's not judging your parents. It's it's taking what really resonates with you from your childhood and being able to leave what doesn't serve you behind and be like, yeah, this is more important to me as I move forward. And this is why like the inner child work. Actually, I was at Welfest, was it? i wasn't.
00:54:17
Speaker
last year, it must have been the year before, and yourself and Gerry were there. And I remember Gerry was doing the, he did an inner child exercise. Oh, yeah. And myself my friend were in the crowd. And I started to close my eyes. That was fine. We did it. I was tears, bawling, crying. And I was like, oh, my God, Kate, you're surrounded by hundreds of people. Get yourself together. And then I opened my eyes I like, everyone else. that's fine. Everyone else. Yeah, everyone else is bawling. But it was, I had done a little bit of of inner child work before that. But after that, I was like, oh, my God.
00:54:45
Speaker
And I can work with a mental performance coach now. We've dug a lot more into my childhood. And it's just the most powerful thing. like And I would just say to people, if you've never tried a bit of inner child work, just go find an inner child meditation. Try it out. We have some we can share. You have some in your cell Yes, yeah. Yeah. And I did a workshop recently. We have a an inner or a soul space community, inner the inner circle. And just on what you were saying there about the values, the last webinar I did with them and they were literally, I just thought it was a very kind of, this is just a normal, you know, but they were all blown away by it.
00:55:20
Speaker
And it was a simple practice where you get people to literally draw a line down the page and on the left side of the page, write down what are your core values.
00:55:32
Speaker
So what really is important to you in life? OK, you can just think of the top five. And then i got them on the other side of the line of the page. So on the right side of the page to ask them, where do you spend your most time? Where does most of your time, energy and attention go to?
00:55:50
Speaker
And write that down. So they did that.
Aligning Core Values with Lifestyle
00:55:53
Speaker
And then I say, are they aligned? And people were just like, oh my God. So most people would say family, health, you know, et cetera on this side.
00:56:03
Speaker
And then where is the most time going? Work, stress. history So they were realizing that their values weren't lined up to their lifestyle.
00:56:13
Speaker
Yeah. So they weren't prioritizing their values. Their life and their lifestyle was their energy and their attention was going in all the opposite directions to where the core values. So why is that really important? Because now we have a tethering of the soul.
00:56:27
Speaker
Now we have a push-pull, tug-of-war happening internally within your soul and you may not even be aware of it because your soul has not been honoured. Your core values, your truth, your soul script, you're not honouring it, you're not listening to it, you're not allowing it to breathe into full expansion and existence.
00:56:45
Speaker
So what's happening is you've been tethered and you've been pulled. And what does that happen? That causes disorientation of the mind, which causes stress, anxiety, worry, fear, all of these things. And then what does that do? That pops all of that nervous energy into your nervous system. And now you're dysregulated in the physical.
00:57:01
Speaker
So now we have a dysregulated nervous system. And when you have a dysregulated nervous system, all the major major functionalities of the of the body get affected. Digestion, respiratory, heart rate, blood pressure, everything, an autoimmune disease, gut, everything, immune system, fertility, everything gets affected if we're not balancing the nervous system. So we try and bandaid and look at the external and the physical to try and fix.
00:57:25
Speaker
But we need to lift the lid and go in and say, well, are you listening to the core values or the essence of your soul? And are you living your life and giving fuel to the fire that's going to ignite that purpose and passion from your soul?
00:57:38
Speaker
If you're not, we're going to be disconnected and dysregulated. And this is why there's no one size fits all, because what's healthy to you is is not necessarily what's healthy for me or what's successful for you isn't necessarily what's successful for me because yeah our souls are different. That's it. And that's what I call the book, Your Soul Script, Your Unique Soul Script.
00:58:00
Speaker
What is that? And are you living your life aligned to your script? If we're not, we get the soul gets squeezed, it gets suppressed, it gets like really suffocates and then your life gets dimmed and then we aren't able to fully, you know, light up. Yeah.
00:58:19
Speaker
And and that's that's what the book is about. It's all about. yeah And I'm conscious now that our time is coming to an end and I could there's so many like I literally have, as you can see, I have notes I haven't even looked at. I was like, there's so much after reading this book that I wanted to talk to you about. But I think the topics that we covered today are just so, so important. And I love what you've said there about the soul like and even just because I think that misconception about the soul or that's religious or that's, you know, something. Oh, no, that's too woo woo for me. It's like, no, it's you. It's it's the the real you underneath all those layers and how to tap into that is what do you actually enjoy? what Like yeah when when you do when you try something, do you actually like this?
00:59:02
Speaker
If we just step into a little bit more joy, step out of our comfort zone. Yeah, push ourselves, try things, yeah but then really listen and reflect. And like, it doesn't the universe have a funny way of showing you the next step then? Yeah. And I think that we just have to be willing to, you know, I often say if you have, I might put my palm out here and I have it full of rocks, things that are no longer serving me.
Letting Go and Embracing New Opportunities
00:59:29
Speaker
but I don't want to let them go because I'm like, have to do this or go there or whatever. Then nothing new can come in. But if you're willing to kind of go, OK, Chuck the rocks, let go, cut the cords.
00:59:42
Speaker
That's the scary part because now there's nothing in your palm. Now it's empty. And now that's scary. And that's I call the cave of uncertainty. But in the cave of uncertainty lies the greatest opportunities.
00:59:52
Speaker
When we sit into it and not run from it and just trust, then now there's space for new things to come in and your life can totally shift and go a new direction. A new person comes into your life, a new group, a new book or new like...
01:00:07
Speaker
I don't know, a link, something, a new program. And you just you you go on a whole new trajectory because you've allowed yourself to sit into that place and trust the essence of your soul.
01:00:20
Speaker
That, I think, is is one of the greatest things we can do for for ourselves. 100%. percent For anyone who really is like, oh, my God, there's so much more I want to learn about this. Please do check out Miriam's book, Light Up. Available everywhere, I suppose. or my books Yeah, it's available in all all bookstores, online um as well. Amazing. think So if anyone would like to connect a bit more with you, have a little look about at be the book, about soul space, about events, where is the best place to reach you? soulspace.ie is the website and then on my Instagram is probably where you'll you'll see everything we we share everything there and that's just Miriam Hussey underscore um and you can message me there and and ask me anything and I'm an open book so I'm more than happy to help and we'll share all of that in the show notes as well and thank you so much for your time today Miriam this has been amazing thank you so much Kate thank you so much
01:01:11
Speaker
I just want to say thank you so much for listening to the podcast. And if you haven't already, do go back and listen to some of our previous episodes. Stay tuned for future episodes. So the best thing to do here is to make sure that you are subscribed to the podcast. It also makes such a difference to me if you do. So if you haven't subscribed yet, please do. And if there's any episodes at all that you particularly enjoy, please Please do share it with your friends, share it in your WhatsApp groups, share it on your stories. Please do tag me. I always love to hear it.
01:01:42
Speaker
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01:02:14
Speaker
Until next time, thank you for listening.