The Everyday Mystic

The Physiology of Resilience: Using Breath & Cold to Train the Executive Mind w/ Dr. Justin Ternes

• Corissa Saint Laurent • Episode 59

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Dr. Justin Ternes is a physical therapist by trade, but his true laboratory is the ice. After losing his father at a young age, Justin spent decades armored in atheism and anxiety, using partying to numb the grief he couldn't speak. It wasn't until he discovered the primitive shock of cold exposure that he found a way to bypass his thinking brain and access the true self buried beneath the trauma.

In this episode, Justin takes us to the frozen landscapes of Iceland, where a Wim Hof retreat cracked him open. He recounts the visceral, spiritual encounter with his late father that dissolved his skepticism and birthed his concept of Modern Mudras: a somatic practice of using hand postures to anchor profound spiritual experiences into the body.

Corissa and Justin dive deep into the biology of belief. Justin explains why he views the body as a "cathedral" for spirit and how manipulating our physiology through breath, cold, and movement is the most direct path to changing our psychology.

In this episode, we cover:

  • The Atheist's Awakening: How the tragic loss of his father at age six shut down Justin's spiritual belief, and the specific moment in Iceland that brought it back.
  • The Primitive Reset: Why getting into freezing water is a form of "physiological self-hypnosis" that forces the brain to prioritize survival over stress.
  • Modern Mudras: Justin’s unique method of creating physical anchors (hand gestures) to lock in memories of joy, strength, and grief so they can be recalled instantly.
  • The Body as Cathedral: Inspired by Jordan Peterson, Justin argues that building a healthy physical vessel is the ultimate act of spiritual reverence.
  • Grief as a Teacher: Moving from being unable to say the word ‘dad’ without crying to using that grief as a lens for understanding compassion.

Notable Quotes:

  • "I couldn't even say the word father or dad without breaking down until I was like 24." –Dr. Justin Ternes 
  • "Psychology is just misunderstood physiology." –Dr. Justin Ternes
  • "Your body is the cathedral... where else can we encompass the beauty of God and spirit?" –Dr. Justin Ternes

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Connect with Corissa:

If this conversation awoke or inspired something in you, please consider leaving us a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review to help us reach more people. 

Thanks for tuning in!

Corissa Saint Laurent

Hey, beautiful souls, welcome to the Everyday Mystic, where we demystify the mystical and transform your everyday life into one of greater meaning, higher purpose, and true joy. Today we're going deep with Justin Turns, a doctor of physical therapy and founder of True Self Health and Human Performance, where he focuses on supporting high-achieving humans in reaching their greatest potential and truest version of self. Justin is a breathwork specialist with a passion for cold immersion that began in 2015 when he learned of women called. And to this day, ICE is his life. He loves building communities, facilitating workshops, and staying up to date with the latest evidence-based practices. In this episode, we talk about Justin's past, who the work he now facilitates, and the impact of his father's death in his life. He shares how he came back into his body. He discovered his gifts, helped support his family, therapy, psychedelics, breastwork, and of course cold immersion. You'll hear all about his Wim Hof excursion in Iceland where he was cracked open, not unlike the ice he was plunging into every day. On this episode with Justin Turns on The Everyday Mystic. Hi, Justin. It's so good to see you today. Thank you for joining us on The Everyday Mystic.

Dr. Justin Ternes

Thank you for having me, and I'm excited to be here.

Corissa Saint Laurent

I'm excited for you to be here too. And I'm I'm uh slightly bummed that we live in the same town and we can't do this like face to face together because that's always so special to be actually in a room. But I get to see you on the regular, uh, so that's okay. But here in this type of conversation, I don't ever get to be with people during the podcast recording. It's always, you know, people that live all off in these far-flung places. But you and I live in the same place, but here we are virtually connecting today. Um, but to talk about your spiritual path, your uh path as a everyday mystic. And, you know, if you've anyone tuning in that hasn't listened to this podcast before or this is a new concept to you, I named this podcast The Everyday Mystic because I believe that's what we all are, that we all have not only the capability, but that it is who we are to connect to our own divine nature, that we are the divine. And the way that we figure that out, remember that, connect back to that are so many different paths. There are countless ways, both ancient and modern, that are guiding people back to that knowing. So that's what the everyday mystic is all about. And Justin and I met recently here in uh the town that I moved to fairly recently, and he has a beautiful set of practices. And just in our short amount of conversations, I know that he's also walked the path and is walking the path, which is really what this is all about. So we're gonna hear from you, Justin, today. Why don't we start with just like how did the path open up for you? Because most of us, and I will just preface this most, and this might not be your story, but most of us, you know, didn't grow up with this kind of mystical lineage in our family that, you know, we were uh guided this way by our matriarch and our patriarch, and they were, you know, running us through ceremonies when we were younger. Uh so it's something that, you know, we came to typically on our own, right? So what's the story for you? How did you come to find this path?

Dr. Justin Ternes

Great to be here and good to drop in a conversation. And although we see each other frequently, I feel like we haven't fully dropped in. So I'm excited to fully drop in um and get to know each other. And um I often speak about this concept and I practice meditation uh on a daily basis. And then I think over the last couple of years, my practicing meditation has shifted from practicing meditation to being, being meditation, like all day long throughout the day, and just being in tune with the world as much as possible. And whenever I'm in tune with the world as much as possible, that is a practice of mindfulness, presence, awareness. And through that, you can open up to the mysticism of the world. So uh, whenever I heard of your podcast, I was intrigued. I find that I am an everyday mystic, as is everyone, but I don't think that everyone has that connection to that awareness of being an everyday mystic. Uh, I definitely do. I'm rocking some like incense right now. I've set the setting and scene. And it's not just for the podcast, like this is something that I've learned and incorporated into my life as a way to again enrich my connection to the present moment. So I I discovered Wim Hof and Wim Hof method. Uh, if those for those who don't know Wim Hof, it's W-I-M-H-O-F. He's uh the Netherland um bearded man who is has been dubbed the Iceman and he does the cold exposure. He hiked Everest and shorts and no shirt and mittens. Uh, he's like swam through Arctic lakes and rivers, and he I would say is a spiritual mentor of mine through the fact that he acknowledges cold exposure as a way that we can connect to our primitive nature. You get into a cold body of water, your body will react. Your thinking brain, psychology really doesn't have any space anymore to like to-do list and all these things and stressors of life that are floating around your head constantly. When you subject yourself to a cold, cold, cold water, that goes out the window, you prioritize self, you prioritize moment, you prioritize survival, and you go into this very primitive state. And so for the last eight years, I've been doing the ice bath daily, uh, probably 90% of the days, but every day, into a cold bath, into cold water outside. Here in the Ozarks, we have a ton of natural springs, which is a gift. So I'll do a lot of cold spring dips as a form of my practice. Cold showers even work. So Wim Hof and the Wim Hof method, when I discovered it eight years ago, put a lot of pieces together for me. It made a lot of sense and it brought me into connection with myself. My my current business is called true self-health. So true self, I found like the majority of my life, I hadn't been my truest version of self through childhood adverse events and other things and ways in which my upbringing guided me. As soon as I connected to my breath, so Wimhoff, the other portion of the Wim Hof method is breathing, connecting to your breath, deep hyperventilation, and through that deep hyperventilation, you create this physiological shift and physiological self-hypnosis, hypnosis, and in that you almost blow off all the deterrence that keep you from that connection of self. So I wasn't aware how much I was not being in my truth and in my center until I found these practices that connected me right to that. And so now I can't go back. I don't want to go back to that unconscious, uh, uninspired, non-engaged part of me that I lived in for so long, and with good reason and compassion and understanding. But um, yes, so that's part of my journey, and I can drop into a little bit more of the why of the little other stuff too.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, well, tell me like what was it, the seven, eight, however many years ago, that you discovered whim and and these methods? Like, what was it that drew you to that in the first place? Did you were you uh did you feel the sense of lack or longing or that things something wasn't right in your life? What was driving you?

Dr. Justin Ternes

Yeah, there was there was a a string of events that got to the point where I was open and receptive. There's an individual named Paul Check.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, I'm very familiar.

Dr. Justin Ternes

Yeah, sweet. Paul Check is someone that I find to be extremely engaging. Uh, I would claim him to be one of my teachers, my spiritual teachers as well. And I recall having heard about him, listening to him, and not being really connected to him. And then maybe two years later, I heard him and I was like, who is this guy? And it was the same guy that I had tur heard two years prior, but at that time in my life, I wasn't fully open and receptive. So it took me this, like it took me some like deepening within myself to be open and receptive and understand and be able to like really hear Paul Czech and be like, whoa, I'm I'm understanding what he's saying. He speaks at this kind of high level of spirituality. And so I think Wimhoff came at the right time for me, the perfect time for me. And as soon as I heard him speak, he speaks with this enthusiasm and excitement for life. And I'm I have a very strong bullshit detector. Like, if someone's like, hey everyone, I'm super happy, and I'm like, I don't really believe that. Like, you don't look that that's bullshit. This guy I heard, and he was just so excited and so authentic, and I was like, he's not bullshitting. This guy is truly connected and truly high on life and truly excited to wake up every day and live. And so as soon as I heard him, it was like I was fully in. Um, but there were steps that led to my openness and receptivity to listen to him. Um, I started, I went to a meditation. Um, I grew up in Fayetteville, where the University of Arkansas is, and there just so happens to be a connection between one of the professors at the University of Arkansas and some Tibetan Buddhist monks. So I recall when I was 15, my mom was like, Oh, there are these Buddhist monks doing a meditation. We should just we should go. And I was like, All right, whatever. I haven't done meditation, haven't really heard of it. I went and uh it was a 30-minute open eye, eyes drawn down towards the ground, meditation, and it was almost the first time that I had felt this peace and calm and visualizing myself as the mountain. And so um that was a moment of awareness for me that that sparked more interest in um the practices. Yet I was only 15, I was still a shithead, I was still an athlete, focused on sports, and it kind of like went out my uh window. But a few years later, I'm in college, and again, my sister sends me a message like, oh, check out this study on meditation. Is your brain on meditation and the brain's not super lit up, your brain not on meditation, and the brain's kind of like not lit up, your brain on meditation, and you could see that like the fmri was showing these uh portions of the deeper center of the brain like activated. I'm like, oh, that that seems like something that you want your brain to be able to do is turn on these deeper parts. And I'm like, ah, so that intrigued me. So there are these little moments of like planting the seed of the practices of meditation being something that I would be interested in, and then a few years later got into yoga and found that to be positive, and then Wim Hof, and I was like, boom, all in. That was the path of like openness, but in that same time frame, I was depressed, I was sad, I was confused, I had um a stepfather that I did not like at all, and I was partying to avoid inner pain and inner conflict and sadness. Um, so even earlier, I was six years old, and my my dad passed away in a car accident. So that was it. Six years old, um, actually two days ago, it's his 28th uh anniversary of his passing. And so I was six years old, great family dynamic. I have four siblings, so it's my mom, my dad, and four kids. My little brother was one month old, two months old, and so my dad like said goodnight to us and went on his trip. And then in the morning, family members were crying at our house, and there was this whole scene of just confusion. And as a six-year-old, it's just like, what the hell is happening? Hero gone, unsure what yeah. So that that's whenever uh everything shifted for me and my awareness, and as a six-year-old, that's a very I feel like ripe time to experience such a trauma and then really not be able to understand it, and then have anger and confusion and grief and questioning of God. From that point forward, God didn't exist because why would God exist if something so bad could happen? So claimed atheism at six years old. No way, no way, no way, and that also took away like any like faith or connection to life and spirit, and so in that claiming of agnostic uh belief or a lack of belief or no belief came a lot of anxiety and fear and nothing to hold on to and stress, and so and at the same time, very very positive practices from my mom and a strong family dynamic uh and very strong community support that supported our family in those moments. And so I recognized too the importance of community and the importance of connection and understood the way in which our body holds emotions and connects to emotions. We already I was reading my night books for grief books instead of nighttime stories. And my mom said at one point, she was like, she's like, There's one point, a couple like weeks or months after he passed away, when you're like, she's reading us a bedtime story on grief and death. And I was like, mom, can we can we read something other than like this kind of book? And so she shares that and she's like, Oh, I guess we can we don't have to talk about this all the time, but so that continued. So that was that moment where I went from just a kid being a kid to a kid seeing the world in a completely different way, and obviously shifted my trajectory of life. So that is my story, uh that is the intro of my story, part of my story, and grateful to share it. And uh I'm also grateful to share it from a place now that I can share it because for years, anytime I'd see a friend with their dad, I could I'd cry. Anytime I saw Lion King, we watched Lion King as a class movie in third grade, like two years after it happened, and the scene where like Mufasa dies was just like I started crying, and kids are looking, like, what's happening? And I had to leave, you know. So I couldn't even say the word father or dad without breaking down until I was like 24. And I was just like, Fuck, fuck, like, like what do I do? I need to get I need to be able to talk about this, and so that that almost shifted my understanding of grief and understanding of suppressed emotions. Having gone through that over the last many years, grateful to be able to share it in a way that I the grief and pain comes with a sense of understanding and appreciation versus grief and pain come with confusion and anxiety and stress. So I am very grateful for this podcast and opportunity to share that, and also grateful for the work that I've done to be able to speak in a way that it like feels good and connects for me. So, yes, thank you.

Corissa Saint Laurent

What were some of the things that helped you actually tap into where you were holding the, you know, even the idea of dad? Because that had obviously been suppressed to the point of where we can't talk about this, I can't feel this. So, what helped you excavate that?

Dr. Justin Ternes

It was just many, many like layers of journey. Again, I my my dad was a psychiatrist, and so we were well equipped with ways in which to navigate with pains and emotions and made books. And a lot of my father's colleagues like took us kids in as like um clients as therapy. So I was in therapy from a young age, and so I think that that helped me understand that emotions are in the body and to feel them is uh not a bad thing, and yet at the same time, I didn't like I didn't want to go to therapy, I just wanted to like be a kid. Um, right, and um and so um going back to like the peaks and valleys, it was definitely in the moments where I was just over drinking as a high school party, like to be really cool, but really to like avoid feelings that led to me realizing how much I was disguising pain and hurt, and it showed up through me losing a connection to my my physical body, getting out of shape. This is into college, just partying all the time, drinking, and and um noticing and looking at myself in the mirror and being like, who is this? Who is this? Like, that's not me. And so um again, it was just a few moments of like recognizing fuck, this isn't me. I need who I need to do something different because I almost foresaw if my life continued this way, I wouldn't have a satisfactory future, you know. So it was a connection to my shadows that led to uh the awareness of stepping up and going deeper. And Wim Hof method, boom, out of nowhere. Ice is your friend, it creates like life. And Wim Hof had lost his wife to suicide, and that's what spurred his interest in cold exposure. And by doing ice baths and cold exposure, it's a nan uh a natural antidepressant, it's a natural mood enhancer, it's a natural dopamine enricher, serotonin regulator. So my serotonin was probably way off. I was depressed and sad. So getting into the cold, doing these deep hyperventilation practices um really did wonders to physiologically shift my body, neurologic, neurologically. Shift my brain and then through that open up this window of opportunity to move forward. And my deepest hole was probably when I was like 22 in college, 21, not doing great in school, maybe on the verge of flunking out. Um intellectually, likely I'm not a student that should not pass class. You know, I just wasn't going to class and smoking weed every day. Um and I was depressed and I didn't want to leave my room. Um and so that was where I had a moment with my mom. She's like, hey, let's let's try some antidepressants. So I got onto Zoloft. I didn't like it. I didn't want it. It made my stomach hurt. The side effects were shitty. I like, but my paranoia went away. I um I started feeling a little bit more openness. I felt like I was in a hole. And the Zoloft uh gave me a ladder. And so I like used that for about five months, and then I was like, this makes my I felt I feel shitty, I feel better, I don't want this. So I just winged myself off, cut it out. And that I think was a necessary component to my restructuring of self. So, like I said, there's no one thing, it's just a huge combination of things that like have got me to the point where I am now.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah. Well, thank God you had a mother and a family and a community who knew how to support you and were doing that. That's so beautiful to hear. And what a gift to you to help you through, help all of you. I mean, you were all grieving, right? So to for all of you to go through that together, but have tools and have resources is just beautiful to hear. Um, and you know, when it comes to pharmaceuticals, it sounds like you did it in the right way, which I think is how they're supposed to be used, these short-term, right? Short-term use. And then, you know, hopefully you don't need them anymore or you you move past. And I believe a lot of them were designed to be that way, to just be used in the short-term fashion. And uh unfortunately we've got this epidemic of people just it becomes their daily vitamin. It becomes, you know, part of their daily routine rather than an emergency, you know, situation where it, like you said, it gave you that emergency ladder. Like, here, okay, climb out. And now that you're out, you're you're good to go. Like, let's let's move on, move, you know, into life and different with different tools. So the obviously breath work and meditation and and cold exposure has been an incredible set of tools. And I love that you shared about you know the genesis for whim and how that also came from death and grief too. Um, because most of us who have found the light, you know, have come back to ourselves, our true selves, um were brought to the lowest depths before we were initiated into you know this path. Um and Wim certainly being this person who has tapped into these supernormal abilities through the these practices is no different. For you, when you started these practices, you started coming out of your own hole, when you started to feel whole again and you were feeling more like yourself again. Did you find God again or kind of come back to a faith that you had lost at six years old?

Dr. Justin Ternes

Great, yeah, great question. And I I'm clinging on to the the supernormal statement of Wim Hof. Oh, you know, and he got he was seen as supernormal. Like he he oh, Wim Hof is different, he's unique in the sense that he can do these feats of cold and whatnot for a long and extended period of time because he is super natural, and what has been proven is there's no uniqueness to him. We all have that capacity, and that's why I teach. So uh, just some background on me, I teach breath work, I teach the Wim Hof method, I teach cold exposure. That's part of my practice. I'm a physical therapist now, so I work with the body, but then I've recognized how much the mind component is as important as the body. They're one in the same, they should be seen in one uh there's a physical body, then there's the emotional body, then there's a spiritual body, and how can we use the three together and communicate and understand how they all do exist and coexist, and one is not superior. So that belief that we aren't it's only unique to whim, uh, is is quickly being dwindled through the thousands and thousands and thousands of people jumping onto the Wim Hof fad and getting into a cold and and doing like winter swims and polar plunges and understanding how powerful that is for the mental health practice. So, yeah, I just wanted to like highlight that is like it's not a unique to one person, not unique to Justin thing, it just requires consistency and engagement and doing something tough and difficult and then feeling the benefit that comes after it. Boom. Um, so there's your dopamine balancing. So uh wanted to highlight that. What was that question you just asked? Because I I liked it.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh, well, yeah. Then when when you started becoming whole again and feeling you're starting to come back to your true self, did you have a reconnection with God, the one that you had lost when your father died? Like, did that come back into your life?

Dr. Justin Ternes

One moment did it does stick out significantly. I went to Iceland on a Wimhof retreat um in February 2019. And so is me and 20 other crazy Wim Hof ice bath humans gathered together in the south of Iceland in February. So it's winter, it's cold, there's blizzards going, and we're like, let's go out into nature. So every morning we went to we walk um to a river that was almost all completely covered in ice, but there's this little opening space, and we just jump into the river and do our breath work and freeze and then go back and have hot tea and warm up and commune and and do breath work together. It was very woo, very woo-woo. But it gave me a sense of connection to others, it gave me a sense of connection to nature. I mean, Iceland is as beautiful of a country as you can imagine. Uh, it was fascinating seeing a landscape that's covered in snow, yet it's an active volcano or active volcanic island. So it's covered in snow, but there are these mounds of green and steam. And so it's like winter cold, frozen landscape, and then these like little pockets of greenery and steam. I was just like, wow, it was fascinating. And so through multiple days of deep breath work practices, deep cold exposure practices, connection, I had a moment at like 2 a.m. where I just woke up and I had like a dream or a connection with my dad in a way that felt so like visceral, but it also like struck me right in the heart, and I was like, fuck, I started crying. And then we're in a bunk room, and I'm like, I don't want to fucking cry in front of everyone, like keep it up, and I'm like, shit, like, but I couldn't help it. It was like probably the biggest like grief bubble that had ever popped in me. And I was just like, I was like, I have to go outside, I have to go outside, I have to go outside. So I went outside, and it was like probably like five degrees completely freaking still, and I just sat outside and just like sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, and I spoke to my dad, and I just spoke out loud and into the darkness and into the quiet, and I spoke and just like let everything up and out, and just pause, and there's this fucking crazy sound that like came right back at me from the quiet, and it was like a wolf or an animal of some sort, I don't know what it was, but it just like as soon as I was spoken, spoke, spoke, and I just went quiet, it like hit me, and I was just like, oh fuck, and I started crying again, and I had more, and I was like, okay, here's more, here's more. I'm just man, and then I started grieving for my family and my siblings who had also lost him, you know, and they had their own grief and suffering, and just all came out, and just and I got quiet again, the same noise again. And it's just like the fact that the noise only happened twice, and the only times it happened was when I went quiet. I was like, okay, this is fucking weird. And I just like looked up, and it was cloudy, but there's this one part in the clouds, opening in the clouds, and there's one star right in the middle of the clouds. And as soon as I looked up, shooting star went through, and I was just like ball. I'm like, what the fuck? What the fuck? And that was me saying, Okay, he's here, he's here, spirit's here. It was the most amazing, profound spiritual experience of my life. And from that point forward, I'm just like, okay, I believe I got you. Yep, yep, I will trust and listen. Um, there's some undeniable like reality of that experience that hit me in such a way that I think it was from prior to that moment, agnostic. After that moment, like belief in all of it, universe, spirit, connection, interconnectivity. Um, so that was the big moment for me.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Beautiful. Wow. Incredible to have your um, you know, both your your father show up, voice of even God or the that source consciousness be enveloping you in that moment. I can picture you so much in that scene where you could say, Oh, you're so alone, you're like outside sitting here by yourself, but you weren't. You were completely embraced by the oneness in that moment. And as we are in all moments, but you know, I can really see it so clearly in that moment for you. And it's uh beautiful, beautiful gift. So now that you've had that experience, when you meditate, is it different than when you did prior to that? Like, do you do you have a different type of connection within your own meditation or even in your own practices?

Dr. Justin Ternes

After that moment, um many things changed. It's like once you see something, you can't unsee it. So for me, I saw I had seen something and experienced something that was so profound that I couldn't unsee it, I couldn't untouch it. But I also knew that I wanted to embrace it and hold it. And I I needed to create structure around that experience in a way that supported me in continuing that. And at this time, I had a daily meditation practice, a daily Wim Hof practice, breathwork practice. Um, but it was on that last day, and this is just one example of the practices I do on a daily basis. It was on the last day when we're just sitting post-breath work and just in our little peace bliss bubble. The facilitator of the retreat was a guy named Casper Vandermulen, great, great human. So Casper was walking us through this portion of the practice where we were just like recapping the whole week and like just recall the beginning and this and that and everything. And so he was like, maybe put your hand on your heart or something, and I did this, and but then I was like, I do this a lot, and I don't want to mix up this experience with like this. Like, I'm like, I want to hold it and embody it, and I'm like, and as I was listening, I was just like, something about this trip really opened up this third eye chakra center for me, and so I just found myself connecting my hand in my heart to my hand and my head, which is a mudra. So I started to use just naturally found this mudra, uh hand position that held and encompassed that weak experience. And so, as we were going through this practice, I just like held this pose and really brought the experience into my body, into a posture, into my physiology. And so, even now to this day, I can drop into this pose, take a deep breath, and it's fascinating the swirl of memories that just come up out of nowhere. It's almost like I can see and smell the kitchen where we had amazing food and dining. It's like I can, it's like this is my Iceland posture where I remember the shooting star vividly. Uh, I remember jumping into a frozen lake, and I it's just so that surprised me how effective the body could hold the memories, and so I just started doing it every day. And every day I do my yoga practice, and at the end, connecting myself, and then I connect to spirit and Iceland in that trip. And so um that's that practice has expanded for me. Like, this is Iceland, this is my family, like thumbs on collarbones. Um, I have a tattoo for my dad, so this is like a connection to my father, just putting my hand right there, and with like a strong fist, it's like my masculine. Um, there's all I have like 12 of them associated. Like, this is my family, and then this is my sister's wedding. This is my other sister's wedding, this is my other sister's wedding, you know. So there's these ways in which I can like go back to Salita, Mexico for my sister's wedding, like through this mudrail and to see that whole scene. And so those are some ways in which I found um using practices could support the blooming of an experience that was so powerful and profound. And so um, I think I somewhat answered your question, maybe answered a slightly different question, but happy to answer that question.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Oh, yeah. Well, no, you're you're always answering the exact right question that is here to answer. Your mudras are those something that came through you. I mean, this obviously came through you, and then you realized it was one. Are these Vedic mudras that already existed, or is it something that you were just called to hold yourself in these ways and made essentially made up for yourself?

Dr. Justin Ternes

No, they're they're very much uniquely mine. Very much uniquely mine, very much. Um, so I just made them up, came up with it, it made sense. So, I mean, just to like give an example, whenever I do any meditation, my most common is like hands to heart center, prayer, thank you. This is gratitude for like spirit and the practice and everything, and then I bring it to myself, to my heart, like because I want to acknowledge myself and showing up. And usually I go here to heart, and then in this heart, I'm also like slightly rounded through my back and posture, and this is a connection to myself and my heart, but also like my hurt heart, the heart that has suffered, the heart has that has felt deep pain, and I just feel into that, and then from there, I'll do a little drop, I interlink my arms, and that's where I find my inner strength. It's like going down to the lowest part of my experience, connecting to my arms, where I really hold and feel the strength and feel that connectivity. And from here, sometimes I'll do a little connection to my dad, but it's that like interconnectedness of life, and then from this interconnectedness, I change my spine posture to come upright and really hold and embody my truth, my true self. And I'm like, ah, I'm connected, I am that. And then I come to my heart, whereas like I'm acknowledging my greatest potential of self and connecting to my heart and my chins up, and I feel this empowerment and connection, and then from there I'm like, okay, now I can actually finish and complete with spirit. So it's hands here, here, arms back to my heart, uplifted, and then here. And um, it's it's fascinating how that just came naturally through me. And so I know there's ancient arts and practices of mudras, but um, I call this my modern mudra. I just tap into myself and it feels natural and intuitive. So very grateful to share it. I've shared it with a lot of people, and I've encouraged people to find their own. Like when I work, I do a lot of work one-on-one, health coaching, life coaching, spiritual coaching. Never really advertised as spiritual coaching, but what happens whenever an individual releases stress, uh, gets into their body, moves their breath, gets into cold water, that natural there's a natural rise of spirit and connection. And in that, I invite mudras and I'm like, what are you feeling right now? But like, how would you encompass that? And you know, you never know. You brain don't know, but your body's so intuitive. And so people will be like, This is my pose right here. I'm like, Great, hold that really the next five days, five times a day, five by five. Just do it for five minutes, just hold it and remember this lesson to embody this lesson, and then naturally people are like, I'll see someone like eight months later, and they're like, yo, check it out. And I'm like, fuck. They're like, they're like, I got this, making like I can just get there. They're like, whoa, I can get there so quickly in this, and so it's spurred by them. So those are my modern modern mudras.

Corissa Saint Laurent

I love it so much because I'm I'm of the the mindset too that I mean we can learn and glean so much from ancient practices and traditions, but that traditions when they become too rigid are not necessarily useful for us. We can find ourselves in our own intuitive body by listening, like you said, and then creating and doing what's what we're called to do. I think it's it's beautiful to share that message on this podcast because as we talk about being an everyday mystic, our own connection to the divine without the gatekeepers is what I like to say, because you know, so much of spirituality is is behind, you know, a certain set of, you know, you've got to do these rituals in order to reach God. You know, you've got to do this very specific thing and pray, chant, etc., in these specific ways in order to have a connection to God. And you're like, well, if I am the divine, why do I need to do all of these things? And those things I think were means to an end for for, and they showed true for certain people and certain sets of people, like, oh, this is working. Okay, no, everybody has to do this. It's all, it's it works for everyone. And then, you know, then there's this person who's like, it's not working for me. And that's that's not because they're not doing it right, it's because we are all very unique. And I think then we've lost within a lot of these practices the ability to truly listen to ourselves and be connected to our own divinity. And so in order to be connected to our own divinity, we've we it's a must that we listen to ourselves, create our own practices, do what feels right and follow that, follow our own, with the guidance of you know, some tried and true principles and some people who've already walked the walk and have been there, done that. Like we can learn from that, absolutely. But the adaptation is what I think is really important because the adaptation allows it to get fully embodied in ourselves and to be fully our own thing. So I love that you teach that and guide people in that way. Um, if there's one thing that you, you know, whatever's on your heart currently or whatever you want to leave people with today, you know, what's what's one message that you would give to people to kind of help bolster that personal empowerment, that that means to really truly connect to their own path, their own unique way.

Dr. Justin Ternes

I'll I'll try to summarize into just one, but actually I won't even try to summarize into one because I've got five things that are popping up. First, I think about a quote I heard uh through one of my mentors. He says, psychology is just misunderstood uh physiology, right? So our body, our physiology influences our thinking. And um, so many of these practices we're speaking about are very body-based. And so for me, if you're feeling disconnected to self, to the world, to spirit, start to move the body, move the body, move the body, run, go for a run, go for a walk. But like exercise, sweat, like get your physical body, because your body is the cathedral. Like uh Jordan Peterson's uh I'm a big George Jordan Peterson fan, he's another spiritual influencer of mine, regardless of all the polarity of him. Uh, but the way in which he looks at spirit and spirituality, I connect with deeply. And he talks about the reason why we build huge, beautiful cathedrals and churches is as humans, where else can we encompass the the beauty of God and spirit? It's like we can't, like the only the only thing we can do to really connect and hold that is build the most beautiful and magnificent and open space. Like there's no other space that can hold spirit in such a beautiful and profound way. And then you bring that into yourself, and it's like, okay, you I'm not supernatural, I'm in good shape. I put in work, I exercise, I put work in, and whenever I put work in, guess what? My mitochondria function better, my breath and oxygen efficiency improves. And this is my physical therapist brain coming in. And so, whenever my body's in tune, my circulation is more in tune, and I have less stagnant energy in my body, and whenever I have that more free-flowing fluidity of blood, I'm also having a free flow of qi or life force energy through my body. So there's that emotional energetic connection, so a physical, a healthy physical frame, self-cathedral. Um, that is the epiphysis of connection beyond, and so we want to be in good physical health to connect to our body. And the other one that comes to mind too is psychedelics, and I'm interested in psychedelics, and I've practiced with plant medicines over like the last four years specifically, and that is a profound way in which we can get out of our head and into our body and in touch with our heart. And and yet, psychedelics work in my mind better on a body that has been prepared and worked on itself and has that flow of energy and fluidity, and then also psychedelics are sometimes the waking up point for people. It's like if you need to wake up, that that will wake you up. It'll be like, hey, like, come on, like step up. There's this sense of responsibility that can come through the messaging of psychedelics. Um, they're also illegal, and then you want to have a guide for those, and you want to be very in tune. So I'm just gonna cushion that. But um, yeah, those are two things, and I'll just say the one thing is physical form, physical body, connection to self, and being in good uh cardiovascular and physiological efficiency, which leads connection to the spirit.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Yeah, thank you for sharing that because I think a lot of people think of spirituality as either meditating or praying, but essentially it's almost like ascension uh away from the body, right? They think it's it's this connection to spirit and God and all the shit out here, instead of dropping fully into the body and the embodiment side of spirituality, because you can do both, you can do the other. You can absolutely leave your body, you know, and and and have a spiritual connection. However, um, I believe, I think, as you do, that that is pulling our spirit out of our body rather than allowing it like to fully feel the wholeness of us because we are spirit, physical, mental, emotional, right? We're all those things. But if we pull our spirit out to like in a practice that isn't embodied, then we're not you're we're not feeling our wholeness. So I love that you practice spirituality through the body and and at least or you are integrating it in, and it's it's crucial to it, it sounds like.

Dr. Justin Ternes

Crucial. And I love your recapsulation of that. Um, and it's an intuitive, I'd say it's like an intuitive human truth. You know deep down that uh when you are engaged in your body and you're in your body, that's like the most present you can get. And um, that's my form of everyday mindfulness presence to self, presence to reality of the world. I'm constantly scanning the environment, taking in color, breathing in the world, breathing in the air around me, taking in the smells. This is for me spirituality. It's being in the moment, in the body, in nature, all and how it all just moves and flows together. So that's my everyday mysticism there.

Corissa Saint Laurent

Beautiful. Justin, I'm gonna share all your links and whatever it is you want to share with the community in the show notes. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom and your story and your vulnerability in that and all your beautiful practices. I can't wait for people to connect you further. Thank you so much, brother.

Dr. Justin Ternes

Thank you so much.