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Ripple Resource - Rapid Fire Tools for Wellbeing | Bonus #3
83 Plays10 months ago
In this bonus Ripple Resource episode, your hosts Cheech and Nibby offer a unique and off-the-cuff exploration of wellbeing practices. Engaging in a lively rapid-fire question and answer exchange, they reveal the techniques and tools that have profoundly shaped their paths to emotional and physical health. This episode showcases the hosts' personal approaches to grounding techniques, breathwork, somatic practices, and their therapy journeys. Cheech and Nibby share insights from their own experiences, including their interactions with various practitioners and how these practices have impacted their lives. They delve into the benefits of mindfulness, presence, and the power of sensory experiences like scent and music in achieving states of wellbeing. This episode is an intimate journey into the hosts' lives, offering listeners an array of tools and practical tips, making it a valuable resource for anyone looking to enrich their journey towards a balanced and fulfilling life.
For full list of references, resources, and practitioners mentioned in this episode click -> Ripple Resource
DM us on IG @rippleaffectpod
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Transcript
Introduction to The Ripple Effect Podcast
00:00:06
Speaker
You're listening to The Ripple Effect with your hosts Cheech and Nippy, a podcast that explores how individual change has the capacity to affect
Curiosity for Ancient and Modern Wisdom
00:00:14
Speaker
the whole. From neuroscience to donuts, we're two sisters with a deep curiosity for ancient wisdom and modern knowledge, and we're obsessed with learning alongside you because we don't know.
Bonus Episode: Rapid-Fire Questions
00:00:26
Speaker
Let's dive in.
00:00:31
Speaker
Hey, this is your co-host of the Ripple Effect podcast, Cheech here. I hope you're enjoying a fabulous new year. My co-host and sister, Nivi, and I wanted to offer you a bonus this week as a Ripple Resource episode. This particular resource comes in the form of a rapid fire questioning that my sister sprung on me at the end of one of our early conversations. Then later on, I got to do the same to her and we combined them into this bonus episode.
00:01:01
Speaker
You'll hear us both share about what grounding techniques we use, who we've learned breath work from, what somatic work we've explored, our therapy journeys, and even what exercises work for us. Plus more sprinkled in. All the resources will be mentioned in the show's description while we work diligently to get our website and show notes page up and running.
Grounding Techniques and Personal Practices
00:01:22
Speaker
We hope you enjoy this ripple resource.
00:01:25
Speaker
Teach, before I let you go, I would love to do just like a rapid fire tools section really fast on like different practitioners that you use for these things and then maybe I can do mine. Okay, yeah, you go first so I know the format. Okay, so like when you do like a centering practice for yourself, what do you do? Like, do you have a practitioner you go to or go to like, I don't know, meditation, YouTube, do you have your own process? What's that look like when you're centering?
00:01:54
Speaker
Okay, great question. I have a couple different things that I go to. One, I learned more recently box breathing, Mark divine and box breathing. I'd heard of box breathing before, but he actually walked me through that kind of breath work, which I go to now, especially when I
00:02:10
Speaker
feel kind of, again, not centered or not present. I haven't used it as much anymore, but it's being with the knowing that you are, that's literally one of the tools, which comes from Steven Walensky, a quantum psychologist. Is that a resource you can find online or is there a script you can follow or what do you do?
00:02:31
Speaker
Yes, Steven Walensky has many books. The one that I know he walks through a couple of these different ones is called The Waking Trance, and it's an audible book. Waking from the trance, actually, I think is what it's called. And the other one that I will use is a process that I learned through a acting class that I took. It was a voice class. It's called orienting.
00:02:52
Speaker
Her name is Ryan O'Shea and she teaches voice and organic intelligence, which I am a huge fan of. She's based in Los Angeles, I believe. Orienting is the process of becoming present through your senses. Does she have resources online or is it just how do you sign up for her classes? Ryan O'Shea embodied voice. Cool. What about when you're grounding?
00:03:15
Speaker
Grounding, I will go to a personal practice that I learned through the Akashic Records, which is me walking myself through the first part of my pathway. The way that I access the Akashic Records is a visualization that I walk myself through that includes breath and imaging, imaging, imagination of a root system and a protective system, and then opening
00:03:41
Speaker
my heart and my spine and my senses up to kind of feel more of what's energetically available to
Exploring Somatic Practices and Shamanic Movement
00:03:49
Speaker
me. So that's a personalized process I developed through Helen Bonderheide. And Helen Bonderheide teaches Pathway. Actually, I just finished a teacher training. So I actually teach it as well now, but I haven't had my first class. Helen is a wonderful source of learning how to create your own Pathway into Source Consciousness. So embodying the source of your consciousness is what it's called.
00:04:10
Speaker
OK, cool. And then what about for I know we've both done somatic work. What about for somatic work? Who do you what are your go tos?
00:04:20
Speaker
So actually, if you're in humble, a practitioner, Allie Bauer, she's incredible. I'm a friend of mine. Her name is Elizabeth Morton. And within her spiritual direction practice, most often there's a component of the type of somatic practice I want to call, I think it's called a familial family.
00:04:42
Speaker
Dynamics or something, but it really actually doesn't have anything with family. It's just a somatic practice I'll have to put it in the description Yeah, let's put that in the show notes because I know I've been interested in there's a few times we had conversations and you talked about your spiritual direction sessions and they've been I think pretty profound for you and really helpful and I think that just
00:05:00
Speaker
It is, yeah, it's so dope.
Importance of Breathwork and Therapy
00:05:03
Speaker
To finish up that somatic rapid fire, what I have learned to develop for myself is bath rituals. And it's just been a very messy, but meaning in the best way, messy, that word is just the
00:05:17
Speaker
kind of walking myself through, actually, now that I'm tracing this, another healer that I use for somatic work is cranial sacral work with Kat Barker. She's based in LA. And she really taught me a lot about how to shamanically and somatically move things through my body. And I happen to do it in water because I just, I have a lot of connection and it's really helpful. And I feel very safe in the bathroom, any kind of body of water. So,
00:05:43
Speaker
Those are that's my other somatic work that I and on on that subject there I have a really good blog on my website about bath rituals So if you want to develop your own bath ritual, that's like it walks you through it. That's awesome. He said I didn't know that Yeah, that's on e nourish dot life. So that's e and then the word nourish dot life And if you just go to the nourish being blog, there's a post on there about bath
Exercise, Sports, and Akashic Records
00:06:10
Speaker
rituals. How about for breath work?
00:06:13
Speaker
No, you introduced me to breathwork, but beyond the box breathing, the biggest resource that I would turn to right now and because I'm just still learning it, but is Ryan O'Shea's embodied voice. She does a really cool breathwork process that's very practical and I really like it.
00:06:32
Speaker
What about therapy? I am new to therapy within the last five years and I have had the incredible fortune of having one therapist who's both my couple therapist and my primary therapist. So I recommend him.
00:06:49
Speaker
I don't know. I like, I'm so new to therapy that I don't even know. Can you just say therapist's name? Is that good or do they have a privacy thing? But his name is Paul. He's based in Los Angeles, but he does now because of the pandemic, virtual sessions. And how did you find him?
00:07:08
Speaker
I found him actually through a program that was offered through the fire department. My husband is a firefighter and they offer what's called an ESA, Emotional Support Assistance, and that's how we got connected through to both.
00:07:23
Speaker
Okay. So maybe you can talk to Paul and just see if he would be willing to be put in the show notes. But I think that sometimes it's really hard to break into therapy and like, I think just acknowledging and opening up more avenues for people to access more people, like make those connections is really important.
00:07:39
Speaker
And also just to de-stagnetize therapy, it is the best thing that I have probably ever done. So I often with all my clients, I recommend supplemental therapy. I think that it is, it never takes away. It's like homeopathy. It can't hurt. It only helps if it works. You know, everyone has, is different and I know there's so many different types of therapy, but some form of therapy I'm just a huge advocate for.
00:08:05
Speaker
Okay. And then is there any other tools that you that come to mind or any other practitioners in, in like your, your team, your circle that you want to share?
00:08:20
Speaker
I think I mentioned quite a few that like rapid fire on the spot, those are probably the main ones that would come to mind and what I use often.
Meditation and Emotional Connection
00:08:29
Speaker
I personally obviously have access to the Akashic Records, which is a huge resource and tool and the healing components of that, the somatic components that come out organically through those sessions for myself are a huge foundation of
00:08:49
Speaker
where, meaning literally a foundation, and then I build all these other external practices on top of that. So for that purpose, again, I think if I'm offering a resource, it's both myself. And the reason why I took this teacher training was the empowerment of being able to
00:09:10
Speaker
create and develop your own pathway into not just the Akashic records, but whatever other source consciousness, or just source consciousness, meaning, you know, what's available to you beyond just your singular consciousness, and then being able to access and having a pathway that Helen Ballenderhead developed and I'm teaching that work is just so important because I really believe in
00:09:34
Speaker
the autonomy of spirituality but tools and that thing of you can just teach someone how to fish and then they can feed themselves for life and that really feels so important to me. Where would they find that work? RevealYourLight.com and that's Reveal-Your-Light.com. That's my website. What about exercise? I'm a sports person so I really, when I
00:10:03
Speaker
Graduated high school, I was always aware that there was recreation departments. So your local recreation department has adult leagues of any sport. I've always played softball and that's the one that I stopped doing with the pandemic and I haven't picked that up.
00:10:19
Speaker
I picked back up soccer, pick up soccer, so I played soccer, and then I have an organized league that I, adult league, that I joined. Basketball is the same. I also started doing jujitsu, which has been a really challenging and very, very valuable skill set that I think so many people, especially women, could
00:10:39
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benefit from in
Impact of Somatic Techniques and Breathwork
00:10:41
Speaker
terms of understanding how to protect yourself, but the quality of jujitsu is which is a grappling form of a martial art in its non striking. And so it is what I've found to be a little more is a little less aggressive because it's all about submission based kind of work where you're trying to
00:11:00
Speaker
de-escalate the situation. I've heard it recently compared to like physical chess, which I thought was really fascinating. So accurate and it's incredibly challenging. It's probably one of the singular most physically and mentally challenging things that I have done in a sports or athletic.
00:11:20
Speaker
space boxing being probably one of the other ones that I did for a long time. There's something else I know that you utilize is GST, right? Oh, so yeah, thinking of, yeah, thank you. Thinking of fascia work and mobility work. Grace somatomorphic technique with Anna Ray, R-A-H-E. And she fortunately all went online as well. So she's accessible to everyone in her body.
00:11:49
Speaker
of knowledge around fascia and somatic work really through movement medicine is excellent, the caliber of a doctor. She is just incredible, meaning like a doctorate, like she just, she knows so much. And her spine mobility and fascia movement medicine is so, so just healing and rad for mobility, but also strengthening. And then I just remembered too,
00:12:18
Speaker
when you said that, that I also really got into rock climbing. I tend to be, I tend to
00:12:26
Speaker
be drawn to things that are challenging physically but also kind of feel like a kid. You can kind of feel like a kid. And rock climbing for me is that. And so there's interior rock climbing gyms in most cities that you can join and they'll kind of teach you the basics and then you just kind of go and play and climb on things and it's really, really challenging and hard but it's really, really fun.
00:12:49
Speaker
That made me think of one more thing too, which I don't do so much anymore, but surfing. Surfing and snowboarding, I love those type of interacting with nature and just how difficult they are. They really humble you, interacting with a mountain and snow and interacting with water and the ocean.
00:13:12
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is such a humbling experience because it's such a force of nature, obviously, that you're getting to ride with and kind of interact with the elements. And so it makes your brain kind of do different things
Transition to Psychoanalytical Therapy
00:13:25
Speaker
in terms of the puzzle solving when you're trying to find your way down a mountain or navigate through the water and not get crushed by waves. And so I haven't done so much surfing, but I still love to snowboard. So those are my go tos. Awesome. OK, that was a very good rapid fire session.
00:13:47
Speaker
Okay, maybe let's do your rapid fire tools, thinking of different practitioners or practices that you use for when you when you center what practices work for you. So
00:14:04
Speaker
There's a few different ways I approach centering. One of them is this meditation by, I think it's Elizabeth Romeo. She has a free meditation on her website that is a centering practice and it's very short and it has you envision a
00:14:24
Speaker
gold glowing ball in the very center of your brain, right where your pituitary gland would be, and then walks you through a visualization. That's really helpful. Also, for me, anytime I get any body work done or meditation or things like that, all of those help me to center. Anytime I'm getting my nervous system into a parasympathetic state, I think that always just helps me to center.
00:14:52
Speaker
When do you, do you remember when you first learned about parasympathetic states and sympathetic nervous system states? I think it was probably through working with Bruce years and years ago, just knowing like the difference, Bruce Berger, Bruce Berger, knowing the difference in a SOPFIC state, what that actually feels like and working with him to get my body into that state. Um,
00:15:15
Speaker
I think that's the kind of first initial. And then learning about the central nervous system through my behavioral neurobiology class, learning about what that actually is in the body helped me solidify. Oh, that's that. And then learning about trauma.
00:15:34
Speaker
and how it's stored in the body and how our nervous system can react based on that was also really interesting. So yeah, they originated with working with Uncle Bruce and then from there has has evolved. Okay, nice. What about for grounding? What do you what do you turn to when you need to ground or how do you ground?
00:15:57
Speaker
I usually ground by going into nature, observing nature. I also use meditations with grounding techniques. There's a lot of them on YouTube. I think I found one by Tara Brock that I like quite a bit.
00:16:12
Speaker
I'll walk, you know, walk barefoot or lay flat, get low to the ground, lay flat. I also use this technique, and I don't know where it came from, but I've shared it with you, Kat, and I think you've used it before too, is I'll just take a second in my day and visualize walking downstairs into my body from my brain. So it sounds silly, but you just kind of take a couple of deep breaths and then just
00:16:38
Speaker
Envision your consciousness or wherever it is. You're thinking from just walking downstairs into your body into your heart space wherever it is that you want to reside but then then once you're in your body, then it's easier to get in touch with your feelings and your emotional states and then Be lower like lowering your energy of your system into the body is always grounding because when you get in your head and you're overthinking you're under feeling or I should say I when I get in my head, I'm
00:17:08
Speaker
over thinking and under feeling. And when I make a conscious effort to bring my conscious awareness down into my body, that helps me ground. Yeah, I really
Exercise Routine and Spiritual Tools
00:17:22
Speaker
agree. I just had a spiritual session where the practitioner walked me through sinking.
00:17:28
Speaker
just gave me that, that, that cue of like, sink, sink back, sink down, sink in, just allow sinking. And then, and then the feelings came because I ride above my feelings a lot of times. And so that's cool. That's really good. Were you going to say another one? Honestly, I was going to say one time I did a session with you and you walked me through a grounding visualization. And that was probably one of the most powerful grounding visualizations I've ever done where
00:17:56
Speaker
you do your root system down into the ground. But I think a lot of guided meditations, they rush that process for me, and they'll be like, oh, put your roots way down deep into the earth, deeper, deeper, deeper, now connect with the core of the earth, now bring that earth energy up. And it's four minutes, you know? Like, it's not enough time for me to actually sink into that energetically and really make that process.
00:18:24
Speaker
mean something and be valuable and energetically shift me. And so working with you, I remember that very vividly, that visualization felt very, very
00:18:41
Speaker
grounding. Also, I recall the imagery from that being so vivid and so creative and really for the first time ever seeing my root system go down in a new way that was reminiscent of a psychedelic experience, which was really cool.
00:19:04
Speaker
That's such a great point. Visualization techniques have been a huge help for me grounding because once I've taken myself through or have been taken through a 20 minute grounding process, then I can reference those visuals much quicker. But I do need that full experience kind of first and visualizing in the mind.
00:19:24
Speaker
and allowing those images to be helpful is a really good grounding technique. I'm glad you pointed that out. Yeah, I agree. It takes time, I think. At least for me, those things take time. OK, so what about somatically and somatic? So where do you turn to? I know I mentioned, and we had Bruce Berger, Uncle Bruce, on the pod. So hopefully people are familiar with him now. But talk about him or what other kind of somatic introduction work and
00:19:53
Speaker
How do you take care of yourself somatically? The same is true for me. If you haven't listened to that episode with Bruce Berger, it's an amazing episode. Go listen to it. He's a wealth of knowledge and wisdom. That is definitely my go-to person for somatic experiences and healings. I also work with Allie Bauer. She's out in Shelter Cove in Humboldt. She's walked through myofascial release, has walked me through a lot of somatic connection.
00:20:23
Speaker
And beyond that, I think, you know, my work in ACA, in adult children of alcoholics and dysfunctional families, I've done internal shifting just by relating to my inner child and where that stuff, for lack of a better term, is held in my body and then being able to hold those places in my body and bring breath to them, bring love to them, bring
00:20:52
Speaker
comfort, whatever is needed to them. So I kind of have my own little somatic practice that I can do anywhere, just with my own hands and my own presence and my own self.
00:21:02
Speaker
Oh, I would love to talk to you more about that in like a deep dive to hear how you developed it. And if you're open to sharing more of it in another episode, that sounds really cool. Okay. But this is rapid fire. So let's keep it moving. Any other somatic practices that you can think of? Kind of putting you on the spot like you did me, but not that come to mind. I have heard of that book, the body keeps the score and I haven't read it, but I've, I've heard people reference it. And I think that is related to somatics.
00:21:27
Speaker
can i share i have read
Sensory Experiences and Emotional States
00:21:29
Speaker
it i'm three quarters of the way through i had to stop reading it because it for myself and i saw a few other people share this about that book is it's super intense he goes into a lot of
00:21:43
Speaker
people who come from really intense abuse. And then he shares about the techniques and the kind of development of how important somatics is and understanding how it's stored in the body, which is really great information. But these samples are, whoa, intense. So the book is kind of intense to read. And I've heard a couple other people share that there are other books
00:22:06
Speaker
that do the same thing, but kind of address from not as intense of a re-traumatizing thing. So that is the one criticism, which I think it's fair to compliment and criticize different works as they evolve, because that book is kind of the primary source for a lot of things, and then work evolves. And I know Gabor Mate and the myth of normal kind of, I think, continues on with that work.
00:22:34
Speaker
in a really good way. So I'll just mention that too as another tool. Nice. Thank you for that addition. Yeah. So then breath work. What did you and where have you gone now or in the past with your breath work practice? Breath work has been a really valuable tool for me. And it makes me think of the bi-directional feedback loop of our systems that we talked about in the interview with Dr. Barbara Thayer, the neurobiologist.
00:23:05
Speaker
I have utilized Amy Glovin. She's an amazing breathwork teacher and coach, and she has trained most of the people that are now in the popular world of breathwork. I would love to have her on the pod, and I hope to because that
00:23:31
Speaker
My work with her has been probably the most profound when it comes to breath work.
Conclusion and Encouragement to Explore
00:23:35
Speaker
Prior to her, I did use Ava Jo Hansen and I liked her work as well. I thought it was good. And right now I'm reading Be Here Now and the recipe for a spiritual life. And in that book, there's also some breath work.
00:23:54
Speaker
prompts to walk you through meditation and visualization. So I honestly think any type of breath work is super valuable and even just being aware of your breath a lot of times because I realize I breathe short and higher in my lungs and my chest as opposed to deeper into my belly. And so just being, coming aware of where your breath is in your body for me has been a big
00:24:21
Speaker
shift. So even if you're not doing actual work, I think it's valuable just to become aware of your breath and what it's doing right now. And then breath aware. I like that. Just becoming breath aware. Yeah. That's great. What about for therapy? My therapy journey started with better help actually. And I had a decent experience there, not knowing any different. Um, but I felt like it was more counseling. And then when I.
00:24:50
Speaker
got into studying psychology, I realized what type of therapy I really was wanting and what I needed. And so I went into more psychoanalytical therapy and I went through a few different therapists and have landed with my current therapist that I really have done a lot of good work with and I'm really grateful for. I will say it was a challenge to find a therapist through my insurance that didn't really work and
00:25:19
Speaker
Just in general, finding therapists are challenging. I tried to find therapists through ones that needed to get clinical hours and therefore discounted and that was super challenging.
00:25:33
Speaker
If anybody is trying to get a therapist and has hit roadblocks, just try to keep going and persevere because it is as valuable as everyone says, but my journey was not easy into therapy. So I can definitely have a lot of empathy for that.
00:25:51
Speaker
And that's such a good point. I'm really glad you bring that up. And you said, I just want to, I know this is rapid fire, but you said something interesting, which I didn't even think about, and I think it could be helpful in clarifying if someone doesn't know. You said you felt like they were more counselors. Do you now, after having studied a little bit too, do you have a clear definition that you could offer people of what the difference between counseling and therapy is so that if they find themselves in a place where
00:26:16
Speaker
They are inside of a counselor's hands. They might be able to be like, okay, this isn't exactly the therapy I need and continue to search.
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, I would encourage everyone to look up the definitional difference because I don't know that off the top of my head. But in my experience, counseling is more dealing with what is happening more currently and working through those problems tactically. Whereas early psychoanalytical therapy is looking at a broader patterning of your life and your experiences and how they're affecting you.
00:26:52
Speaker
Kind of, it seemed to me it was diving deeper into the unconscious behavior, the root of the cause of the outcome that was undesirable. And so I realized that counseling felt a little surface. It was like, okay, make a list of, you know, ways you could go about this or let's talk about, you know, ways you can react to this situation. It was very, it was more actionable to the actual,
00:27:21
Speaker
daily stuff, whereas the therapy is a deeper experience of your issues. And then there's cognitive behavioral therapy, which is super effective. They deal with just the behaviors and the mind and changing the behaviors to change the mind. So it has nothing to do with what happened to you in childhood. It is very much like when this happens,
00:27:46
Speaker
you can do this instead. So try this. And it works great for better for eating disorders or trying to stop smoking or stress, anxiety, those types of things. That's definitely better. Which we could do a whole episode on just different types of therapy, but I would love to because I for sure feel the education around therapy has helped me.
00:28:10
Speaker
use therapy more effectively, which is cool. But yes, my experience with anxiety specifically for cognitive behavioral therapy is really good. When everybody's different, so your therapist isn't going to tell you specifically do this every time. They're going to say, they're going to find out what helps you. When you feel relaxed, what are you doing? When you feel
00:28:30
Speaker
you know, at peace and no anxiety, where are you? And then utilizing that data going back to, okay, when you feel stressed, how can you step closer to that other experience?
00:28:43
Speaker
Does that feel complete to you for the therapy part of giving tools? Yeah, I think so. I think I would love to have a resource for people to access therapy easier just because of how hard it was for me to kind of jump that hurdle to get in. So if you're looking for therapists and you don't know how to get in, you can definitely DM us on Instagram and I can try and help for sure.
00:29:10
Speaker
Aww, yeah, that's nice. All right, so for the rapid fire, giving more tools. I want to acknowledge that these tools, I think our intention with these tools is to offer what is helpful to us and that it may be helpful to you, the listener. So I know Ise, you have told me that exercise is really helpful to you. You want to share a little bit about what you, what are your go-tos in terms of exercise?
00:29:39
Speaker
Yeah, I recently realized that I require accountability for exercise. So in the past, I think I've realized that and have worked with personal trainers and whatnot, but what I found really works best for me are group classes or calling a friend and having them come with me to work out. So I do classes in the morning early when I'm down in Southern California.
00:30:07
Speaker
And then in Northern California, I usually partner with friends and go to the gym or utilize nature and just go hiking or go for walks. But I think exercise, it's hard to get into if you're out of it, but the benefits for your entire body, mind,
00:30:28
Speaker
I mean, the benefits are so great. If you could get in a pill form, everything that exercise gives you, it would be the most sold pill ever. For your mind, for your hormonal system, for your muscles, for your everything. I mean, it's for your anti-aging.
00:30:49
Speaker
it's so good for you. And even myself, I'm not, I'm not super, super consistent. I try my best, but I've coached people before, obviously in nutrition and wellbeing. And so sometimes it's just starting with neat, your neat numbers, your non-exercise numbers. So walking, just getting steps in, in a day, taking multiple trips from a vehicle to your house with your groceries, as opposed to trying to get it all in one or parking far away, things like that can be super,
00:31:18
Speaker
helpful in just knowing you're doing something good for yourself. But yeah, for me personally, which is rapid fire based on me, group classes, yoga, walking the dog, hiking.
00:31:29
Speaker
Pickleball with Kiana has been fun. Before we go past this section, you said something, you know, that if you fall off, it's hard to get back in. What are ways that you find, because I know you as a person who loves to exercise, you've found that connection and you realize the benefits and, but you know, every, everyone's human and everyone falls off. So what do you find is your kind of process that jump starts or jump kicks you back into if you've, if you have fallen off?
00:31:56
Speaker
I think it's just taking that first step because some of it's like mental, like preparing for the, like the deciding. Sometimes it's really as simple as just deciding, like I am going to do this tomorrow and then going, okay, when my brain tells me, no, you need more sleep or no, it's too cold out or whatever it may be, then what am I going to do instead of succumb to that thought? I'm going to go put shoes on.
00:32:19
Speaker
And then after I put shoes on, I pre-plan. I plan for the obstacles that are going to come up in my mind. And then once I've pre-planned in my head, it's kind of like cognitive behavior therapy. I know as soon as that thought comes up, I can acknowledge it and recognize it. Oh, there's that thought. I knew that was going to happen. And then what did I say I was going to do? I said I was going to go put my shoes on.
00:32:39
Speaker
using pre-planning in my own brain for the resistance and then pushing past it. Sometimes setting my clothes out the night before, setting out a nice workout outfit that I want to wear helps, or making a plan with a friend, being like, hey, meet me at the gym at 7 a.m.
00:32:57
Speaker
And if they say they're going to be there, that accountability thing, I will always show up because I said it. And if you're getting up that early and doing it, then I'll be there. So I think knowing the value and knowing fast forwarding to the post, I know I feel better about myself. I know I feel good in my body. I know I feel
00:33:15
Speaker
healthy. I know I feel happier. I know what it gives me. And so trying to fast forward to that. And sometimes I even just all think of it in the morning like, okay, I just want to get to my truck. That's my goal is just get in the truck, turn on the heater. That's my goal is just to get into the truck. And once I'm in the truck, it's easy to drive to the gym, but getting that part out of the house and into the truck is like a win.
00:33:40
Speaker
I love that. So that's so wise, honestly. Thank you for sharing that. So wrapping up this rapid fire with you, any other tools that you feel are helpful in your practice of life and wellbeing that you could add? I think presence, presence awareness and mindfulness of just coming back to the present moment and observing the
00:34:09
Speaker
colors around me, the nature or non-nature around me, the light in the room, the air on my skin, that'll always help me kind of come back to myself. Just good books that change your mind, you know? Good books that remind you that you are able to shift your state. Or maybe it's not a book, maybe it's a person or an experience or a show or I don't know what, but anything that
00:34:35
Speaker
helps you personally know that state shifting is attainable and constantly available for you, I think is helpful. Paying attention to my dog has been helpful, shifting states based on
00:34:54
Speaker
What's needed in the present moment, you know, I don't know that's good I think that it'll shift your state not to like avoid anything but just to Experience life the way you want to be experiencing life. Yeah, I just as you were talking I realized in your presence practice centering practice I've seen you use tools like
00:35:14
Speaker
burning cedar, and I know I make a fire. I have the privilege of having a fireplace, so I'll make a fire. What is that even classified as? It's a practice we have from the Native American ceremonies we grew up in, cedar being a sacred plant, but what would you consider those tools to be?
00:35:34
Speaker
Uh, I don't know. It's just spiritual tools, spiritual tools, I guess. I don't know what I would classify them as, but yeah, burning Auburn Cedar or Auburn Sage or Auburn Polisanto or, and I always, I have bells in my house. So I'll ring the bell to disperse the energy of the space. Just a clear clearing techniques. Yeah. Clearing techniques though. That's.
00:36:01
Speaker
Wow. That I just realized is definitely something I use. Um, and I, anytime you burn cedar, right? It's the smell, it's the fire. It's the, I'm like, Oh yeah, come back to myself. It's just that programming from childhood and in that safe space of the teepee and that safe space of the, the way we, you know, learn to connect to ourselves and the all, or at least I say I did. And that cedar is again, it's that shortcut. I would agree that.
00:36:31
Speaker
Cedar definitely brings it back and I think it's that olfactory system and it links directly to memory. And so that's a really powerful tool as well, such as essential oils or cedar sage.
00:36:50
Speaker
Recently, I met up with our Auntie Julia, and she was at a dance rehearsal and rehearsing a piece on grief. And after the rehearsal was over, she came and greeted me, and she had me smell a candle. It was a tobacco-scented candle, and she said, I burned this right after Duffy died, and I burned this right after Nick died. And she let me smell it. And those are her husband and her son, our Uncle Duffy.
00:37:20
Speaker
Yeah. And the solace and the moment that was held in that smell was really powerful. And it just reminded me that how strong smells can be in the process of healing, in the process of creating, you know, I've done that before when I was trying to really get into the vibrational state of where I wanted to be.
00:37:50
Speaker
and utilizing different smells to help me feel that in my system. So I think that there's a lot of power in that. What do you mean using smells to help you get to the state?
00:38:02
Speaker
smells and music, I use both of them. Like I would just envision the, I just envisioned the life I wanted to be living and what that would feel like if I was already living that life. And then I would associate a specific central oil or specific album to that. When I was planning on moving to Hawaii, I remember I listened to this Pepper album over and over and I would drive and I would feel,
00:38:30
Speaker
what it would be like to be driving on island you know and i had a essential oil joy that i would smell all the time and i would just vibe into what it was going to be like
00:38:40
Speaker
And then I moved and I lived there and I'll never forget, I was in line at Foodland and they asked for my card and I handed it to them and I smelled that smell of the essential oil and I just, it all came back to me and I was like, oh my God, I did it. That's cool. It was a sweet experience.
00:39:02
Speaker
That's really cool. Thank you for sharing that. Because that's a really, really important tool, I think, if people don't know about it. Okay, Sista, do you feel like that feels good? Yeah, I feel like it wasn't very rapid fire. I feel like it was like mellow. Okay, so wrapping this rapid fire session up.
00:39:24
Speaker
That was really good. Thank you so much for sharing all of your tools and expanding on some and let's expand on more. Sounds good. I'm into it. And hopefully these resources are helpful to other people. I think that there's a ton of value in there and a lot of stuff that everyone can explore. I know I definitely, I really am drawn to the spiritual direction sessions and a few other ones that I really want to look into. So definitely put those in the show notes.
00:39:53
Speaker
And I think we could even legitimately take each one of those to be able to kind of deep dive or give a practical little 18-minute talk on what it is or bring them on as guests because it's awesome and I love this idea of sharing those resources. If anybody has any questions about them, just
00:40:13
Speaker
DMS on Instagram at ripple effect pod with an a affect with an a and we can clarify we can Give you more resources more details on anything that we mentioned
00:40:26
Speaker
Yeah. And we don't yet have our website up, but we will this year. And in the meantime, if you want to find some information from this episode, go to the description wherever you find this podcast and it'll be, it'll be there for you. Thanks everybody for listening.
00:40:48
Speaker
Thanks for listening to another episode of The Ripple Affect. We're looking forward to exploring a different facet of change with you next Tuesday. Same time, same place, next week.