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Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
Ready Set Collaborate is a podcast with a wealth of knowledge on networking, collaboration, and partnership, unlocking the secrets to successful teamwork and Innovation. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a creative professional, or just someone who can understand the power of networking and collaboration. This podcast is your go-to resource. Join us as we explore the stories, strategies, and insights from experts, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.
Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
Elevating Connections with Evie Fleming's Reflexology and Yoga Wisdom
Discover the secret to deeper connections and a more balanced life with our special guest Evie Fleming, a seasoned reflexologist and yoga instructor whose expertise will guide you through the art of self-care and its importance in all relationships. As we celebrate the beauty of human bonds during Valentine's Month, Evie sheds light on how techniques like reflexology and yoga are not just about individual wellness but also about enhancing our interactions with partners, family, and even in our professional networks. Embrace the transformative power of touch and active listening to our bodies, and learn how these practices can be a gateway to managing stress and cultivating energetic connections that resonate in every aspect of life.
This episode unwraps the often underappreciated role of African American women in reflexology and extends a heartfelt invitation to explore the inclusive world of yoga, proving that these practices are for every person, no matter their background. Whether you're keen on integrating reflexology into your daily routine for a serene mind and body or you're longing to enrich your partnerships through shared wellness experiences, Evie's insights are a treasure trove of wisdom. Let's embark on a journey toward achieving holistic well-being together and recognize that caring for oneself is a crucial step in building and nurturing the precious web of connections that we cherish throughout our lives.
Contact Evie Fleming - treeevolutionllc@gmail.com
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Tree-Evolution.com
Reflexology/Yoga
Tree Branches Jewelry
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Welcome to Ready Set Collaborate podcast with Rhonda Pearson, where we will dive deep into the world of networking, collaboration and partnership, unlocking the secrets to a successful team working within innovation. Whether you're an entrepreneur, a creative professional or just someone either to understand the power of networking and collaboration, this podcast is your go-to resource. Join us as we explore the stories, strategies and insights from experts, entrepreneurs and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.
Speaker 2:Tune in to Ready.
Speaker 1:Set Collaborate podcast on a journey towards achieving your goals with host Rhonda Pearson.
Speaker 3:Welcome, welcome, welcome to Ready Set. Collaborate with Rhonda Pearson and I have a special series this month because this month is Valentine's Month, not day. I can celebrate Valentine's Day every day, so I always tell my husband you can get this for me, and then we can know what I like to or what I like. So I want to actually bring this special episode series in because I wanted to make sure we talk about relationships, and either it's a partnership, a marriage, a job or family. So I will have special guests on which I'm going to be if it's any of my special guests today and we'll speak about trauma and relationships, expert in relationships, some boundaries I'll start creating boundaries and the last but not least, self-care in your relationship.
Speaker 3:We definitely need that to sustain any kind of relationship. So this month is going to be full of information and a great resource for you to listen over and over again. I'm so excited to have some wonderful ladies this month of February to talk about so many things that can benefit us in building and maintaining relationships. So let's get started with my relationship, but not my relationship with my guests, evie Fleming. Welcome, evie, to Rensect Elaborate Special Edition on the building relationships. Welcome, evie.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Wanda, and thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, absolutely. So I'm going to say a little bit before I read Evie's bio. Evie and we talk about networking, right? So I met Evie at a networking event and when she actually told me she gave me reflexology, I said what is that? So what? I told her? I said make sure you can't see it on the audio, but you're going to see it on YouTube. Her foot she braids the foot to tell you exactly what force that actually controls your whole body. So Evie is my reflexologist because she actually is awesome and I tell you she put you to sleep too. So I'm going to make sure she's. She shared her information with you because she is awesome among reflexology as well as joke. So she actually had all the tools for self-care. So let me read Evie's bio.
Speaker 3:Evie Fleming is a wife, mother and grandmother currently living in Atlanta, georgia. She grew up in South Carolina and acquired her bachelor's degree in biology at the College of Charleston. She also has a pain no, no, no. Her chain her license of practical nursing. In her thirst for more knowledge of the wonders of the human body, she discovered more holistic approaches and gravitated towards yoga and then found the whole would reflectology. Evie offered yoga classes and now owns her own business called Tree Evolution, also a reflexology yoga tree branches jury, which I didn't know she would. She may not own jury. She is certified as a yoga instructor and also by the American Reflexology Certification Board. She is currently the secretary of the AARCB, which is the American Reflexology Certification Board.
Speaker 3:So, evie, thank you so much for joining us here and I want to God. This is just the honor to have you on my podcast because I can say everybody needs self-care and you have actually taught me about self-care, so I really appreciate it and I want to ask you a question real quick. Before we get into it, let me ask you a question. So can reflexology tie into networking and collaboration? And we just talked about that. Right, how I meant it yes.
Speaker 3:So tell me about that. How can a tie into a science?
Speaker 2:Well, I think how reflexology and even when I tell my students about yoga is how it would tie into networking is you learn when you're doing something, that you're working internally, like you're also developing skills that you will use outside of that. Like I tell people there are things you can do in yoga and you can take that off of the mat. Like, for example, if I am trying in a reflexology session to work with a client on how to say, you go to networking events and they feel how energy and you feel like, oh, it's a stressful environment for me. I don't know how I can do this, how I can connect. You're learning like, okay, how do I manage those stressors? How do I do that? How can I tell when my body is about to experience that and how can I have self care and care for myself in that moment so that I can move through the process? Also, in the session, I'm working with my clients. Same thing with the old. I'm working with my students. So you're learning how to work in collaboration with someone and that person gives you feedback and you get back feedback. There it is a relationship. So that's what I want my clients to realize.
Speaker 2:When you're in reflexology, you are coming, but there's homework for you, there's stuff for you to do, and it gets you more in a sense of how can I take charge and be more empowering in this way? And so you're looking for strengths, weaknesses and how you can move about. So if you were in a networking situation, it would be the same thing. You're like okay, I feel, how can I manage my stress, how can I do this? And now I'm looking for people that I work with, that I feel energetically drawn to, I'm learning about my system. So I'm using those antenna I've now developed and how do I make this work? And then how do I energetically draw my clients to me? By how I am empowering myself as well. So that's how it works. That's how I see it working.
Speaker 3:Now, that's awesome, that's great to bring it up, and I wanted to ask you to this proper self care affects money, ability to connect and communicate, as you was talking about how our bodies tell us this war, so we can gravitate to the effect on ability to connect and cloud and communicate with one another.
Speaker 2:Yes, it does. It does because you are not, you're noticing what is happening, like how am I, how do I feel in this moment? Where is it landing in my body? Right? So that that is the awareness piece that you pick up.
Speaker 2:I feel that my clients pick up through reflexology because now you can say, okay, I go to an event and my chest feels tight, okay, so what does the chest area represent? What does it energetically represent? What do you have beyond the physical part of? Do I have a cold? Am I sick? Okay, I don't feel like I have enough space. So how do I get enough space? Or I don't feel like I can breathe, so breathing means again space. So you're still, you're using your, you're listening into your body and using your body cues to help you to do move about in in your world and in your environment. It's the same thing if you were a business person, you were taking on a new project. If you keep saying I want to say yes, but I can feel, every time I say yes, my system feels like it flares up Then that there's an internal no, that's happening. You're listening for what's happening right In that moment.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. That's definitely a great answer here. So I know we flipped it around here, but I want you to tell us how you got into reflexology and yoga. What made you get into reflexology? What?
Speaker 2:actually, I went to yoga first. I started doing yoga first. I'm like everyone who hits January one, you make these big commitments about how I'm going to work out, I'm going to exercise, I'm going to do all this stuff, and so I started going to the gym and I started working out and doing classes while I was working out. But then I gravitated to a yoga class and I enjoyed the yoga so much more. I liked the fact that I could take the yoga anywhere I could. All I needed is a mat, and sometimes I needed is a good surface, and I could still take that whole concept of it and take it anywhere. And then, as I later will say, one of my, in a book I've written, one of my yoga teachers said you should actually teach. I think you have the temperament for it, I think you are a teacher at heart and you lack of people and learning, which I do. And I began to study yoga and I did some weekend classes and then finally, I did a full year immersion into yoga, which is that's why it's helping me. Yoga is so much more than just you exercising on the mat. There's meditation, there's breathing and all of this stuff. So I went to learn all of that.
Speaker 2:So after I had the yoga under my belt, I didn't went through the process of just trying to examine, do more self care and self awareness. And after doing some detoxes and really working on the foods I eat and when I'm feeding myself, I got introduced to reflexology and then I thought, oh, what a wonderful modality that you can work with people and they don't necessarily have to. It's a good. It's good that you just work with the feet, the hands and the ears, and for some people that's great, because if they're not there, more it's closed, it's a more relaxed, you're in a chair type of environment. So when I figured out how you could do that with a nursing background, all of that just felt like it just went in together, and so I feel like the two modalities compliment themselves and hence I feel like they're sisters.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you do it very well, I tell you. I really, when I met Evie, it's a lot of things that I learned about myself as far as what I was doing, like drinking enough water. And she said are you drinking water? Not as much as I should be.
Speaker 2:Now we constant I think as a whole we live in a constant flux of dehydration. We just don't realize how much water we need to drink. And it's good from a sense of you want to flush your system, you right. And if you're not drinking any water, it's trying to retain what it has. Therefore, it's keeping all of those toxins and stuff in too and drinking the water. Everyone I'm sure people who started to drink more water and work out and stuff the first thing they noticed is, oh, my skin looks so good.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, that makes a big difference. No, thank you for sharing that. Now, could you and I think we talked about this, but could you explain what refluxog is, what it is? And then I'm going to have you bring your foot out and you can't see it on the audio, but we're going to have it on YouTube and how it contributes to renexation and overall well-being.
Speaker 2:The first thing I would like to say is that refluxology is different from massage. They're not the same. So sometimes when I say refluxology, they say, oh, you massage your feet. It is not the same, they're two different modalities. So first I want to say that and I feel that the best way to explain is refluxology is more specific to your feet, your hands and your ears, and in that there is mapping of the entire body that can be placed upon, copy and pasted on top of those areas. So when you're in a refluxology session, the practitioner is using manual techniques that try to stimulate your neural pathways to get a sense of where you may be experiencing sensitivity and then connecting the dots on where is that in the body? Where is that landing in the body? Therefore, you're getting a more holistic view of what is happening in your system in a way, because, for instance, like she said, on the foot right. So you have your foot here. If you do the toes and stuff at the top, this is where your brain and your sinuses are. So if someone is having a lot of allergies and they're feeling like they have an allergic reaction, these are areas that I would work and then be paying attention to what I'm feeling there and then be able to get it. But again, like I said, give them homework. What are you going to do when you go home? What are some things that you can do when you go home? And so it's lore. It's a manual technique. There's no use of tools.
Speaker 2:The practitioner is totally using their hands and again they're following a mapping of the body. And when you do, you see a lot of times people have more lore, extremity stuff. They want to do the feet. If they have more upper or they're having something going on in their hands, they may choose to do their hands. Your ears are a wonderful place to get in the body and create a sense of relaxation. It works really well with people if they're having migraines to work their ears. Push your up a little closer to the brain where the mind chatter is happening and you're trying to calm it. Hopefully that tells you a little bit about it. But enough about it. I would for sure just know that it's feet, hands and ears and it is a manual technique.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really is. And I talk about relaxation. Now I know we sometimes can't help with relaxation. It's because I'm in your chair. All of a sudden I'm swapping. They say I know I'm not that.
Speaker 2:So if you're just I'm proud of that too is because along with it, you are doing relaxation techniques in between, and if that is, the person proposes oh, I can't even I really relaxed. Did anything happen? Yes, it did, because if you were invited by for the first four days of the week and you came to me Friday, I was able to get you relaxed enough that you could sleep and sleep to me and someone sleeps in my chair. That lets me know that you felt comfortable and secure enough to actually go to sleep. That means I created a safe enough environment for your system to go down, and when you get in that mode now, all of the other things can happen your digestive system, your immune system, and so that is where the real restoration starts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and absolutely so. Are there specific pressure points or techniques that, particularly, that are effective in getting you relaxed?
Speaker 2:There aren't, because you're first going to work the person's nervous system, and the nervous system and the foot runs along the inside of the foot You're going to because you're going down the spinal column where the nervous system lies, and so you start with a lot of you can do more relaxation techniques within it and to help them.
Speaker 2:There is also one in the session where you rock, and I've done videos on my social media to talk about how rocking releases natural endorphins. So there's ways to do that. And then I also bring in some music because I use a lot of sound therapy and I use the sound therapy to lead you into more but meditative, more sleep, and then I also use the sound therapy to help them to stay in their state so the body can restore itself. And then another thing is with the ears. There are specific points and sometimes if I have a person I feel like they need to take it outside of the session, we can put some seeds on some of their relaxation points that are located right on the trigger points of their ears to help them to stay like a little down, and I made that to me.
Speaker 3:You put the seeds and I forgot the seasons in there and I think I kept them there for a week. So but, but I could feel the difference is, for example no, it really is a lot of techniques that that every you can use. With the reflexology that helps people, especially if they under stress, the managed stress. But how do you incorporate that reflexology yoga practices into their daily routines to manage stress?
Speaker 2:The thing that I do is I could give you an example. Let's say someone is saying OK, I feel like I have. I have a lot of pain in between my shoulder blades right. Usually that is a big stress point, people, because you're hunting right, you're just, you're hunting on your phone, you just grabbing your body inward right. So there's that piece of it.
Speaker 2:So in the reflexology session then I would go to the place on your foot that corresponds to that area, your shoulders right, and so this lower, the outer edge of the feet. So I'm working that and looking to feel for where exactly it is. Is it upper or lower? Where in the mid back or that thoracic area and maybe located? So I'm looking to work that. So then we'll try to help you release the pain pathway that your body has developed and try to soothe that and calm it. So then now I've gotten you in a calm state and you're like, oh, I'm good, or whatever. So I only had just one hour and now you're about to go back into your life.
Speaker 2:So that's when the homework comes in, that's when you encode. That's why I feel like yoga is the best for that, because then now I can say now I need to show you some stretches. When you come home every day, you're going to do these stretches because you maybe have tightened yourself up. How do you unwind yourself at the end of the day? And then, what am I doing now? Now I'm teaching you daily self care habits right Now you're learning. You're doing things and you're learning because if people follow what I say, then they'll come back and say oh, you were right. And once I did it, I didn't have all of that and I feel how it shipped it. So that's, the yoga helps me to give the homework, to help them develop a routine at night or at home that they can take outside of the reflexology session. And then I can also show them the points on their feet and say rub these places as well. Think about it. Think about moving that energy, moving that discomfort.
Speaker 3:That's awesome and I was actually going to ask you to give us a specific tip or advice to our listeners. Who is interested in exploring self care to reflect outside of the yoga, but maybe have to overwhelm or ensure where to begin.
Speaker 2:The first thing that I would say is of course you need to come see me like wow, I would be remiss if I did not say that because you don't want to actually start with someone. Maybe that knows and can lead you down that path. The other thing is, if I'm not in your area and you're watching this the one mentioned in the beginning that I'm part of the America Read Lexology Board so that you could check their website, drcbnet, and you could find a reflexologist in your area. There is a search engine on there. And then the other thing is you can always you could Google, but I would suggest that when you're Googling so you don't get overwhelmed, you're like, oh, I don't know about reflexology, you Google specifically what you're having an issue with.
Speaker 2:That means I would put, if I was having problems with my hands, I would say hand reflexology. I wouldn't just put reflexology and go broad, I would start going specific. Then if I'm like, oh, I think I have neuropathy, then I would say neuropathy and reflexology. Like I would look up those specific things and see what little tips and tips that they say about it and then see if you could do. There's nothing wrong with you trying to do some self care and some self tips yourself. But the beauty of going into reflexology session is that you're not doing it. So now your brain's not engaged, so you're doing it. You're still having to think right, if you're going for the total, let me let my body do the work and my mind I try to jump on it. It would be great to have a session first and then move from there and then let the person give you some tips.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, and you definitely get some great tips. I want to ask you this, since it's on relationships how can you overreact? If you had couples reflexology? That would be great. We've been helping them. Do you do anything like that? As far as what is Valentine's week night, you can say? How can you get there?
Speaker 2:I'm not, but it definitely is. You definitely would have to have a very willing partner to do it, because you that therefore would help the other person to learn how much pressure they're rendering, how much they shouldn't, how much is really relaxation and how much it's not, because in reflexology it should not. I don't really want to take you to a pain point, because I'm taking you to a pain point Now I've got to back you back out of that stress of the pain. But I can press it a little bit to see the sensitivity. But I don't want that this right, because now your body is, you went back in that fight or flight and I need to calm you back down and essentially I want you more in that closed state.
Speaker 2:Yes, partnering, yeah, you can watch videos and for sure say, hey, let's try this technique on each other and let's do it, because then it develops a sense of communication with your partner. You develop a sense of touch, you get to learn what the what, what are the power feels or what feels good to the other person, and then, when they are seeing they're complaining about something, then your partner could grab your hand and they already know where they need to be rubbing your hand and just assist. So, yeah, it's probably something in the future I could look at, but it is not something I would say no to.
Speaker 3:Yeah that's it Exactly. And we, what we do, make it a suggestion, then you're going to go and do it, you're going to find a way to do it. So that was some great tips I appreciated, but what I want you to do is share your contact information at Westside with the audience so that they, too can experience your magic of reflexology and yoga.
Speaker 2:If you're wanting to, like I said, if you're in my area, if you look under tree-emvolutioncom you'll find my website and on the website it'll it. When you pop in a dose, if someone's new to reflexology does, give a short little video of me talking and talking about reflexology and then under the experiences tab, you can click and see what I offer and then be able to schedule something from there. I also have a Facebook page that has the same name, tree evolution, where I do a lot of tips, giving different little tips about reflexology. Sometimes I will link to yoga as well. On my Instagram account it's under ebi underscore slim F-L-E-M is where I put it and so you'll know for sure it's me because right away it says reflexology as ERCB director and you'll know you're on my site and I try mainly my social media posts.
Speaker 2:Every once in a while I'll post some fun things about things I'm doing, but I pretty much try to stick to the health and wellness and trying to bring awareness about that, because in the field that I'm in there are not a lot of African American women that are reflexologists. There are a few, and probably more maybe outside the US, but so it's a growing field for African American women. It's also a growing field for me to bring awareness to it to all different communities and cultures, because a lot of people, when you say it, I can always tell that people are aware of reflexology, because whether they just say oh and they don't, they have that look, I'm like you really know what that is. And then they all say oh, and that's when, yeah, when the book comes in handy to bring the foot out and explain it.
Speaker 2:So I do have those social media platforms where I mostly do a lot of reflexology and yoga and talking about it. So I encourage everybody if you can, just follow me and see my tips and on Sundays at 2 pm on my Facebook page, I do a lot of my personal Facebook page. I do a lot of mindset and reminding you to check your mindset and to reset yourself the week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh yes, if you had mentioned that, I was going to say remember to mine fit someday yeah that was on my personal page, so that would be under every funding.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 3:And you really have to say about your tic-tac bro, you need to do lots of stuff on tic-tac.
Speaker 2:I do, I do, I do, I do. I have been doing a lot with it. I think that tic-tac is very. I think that it's good to. The one thing I like about it is it gives you the room to be a little creative in how you represent the refact, like how can I create a dance routine that also relays a message to you? Or how can I make something funny that also relays a message to you? So it does, I think it's strategies you. It stretches me a little bit too, and but it's good to be on all platforms, as from a networking standpoint, it's good to be on all platforms. They're right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it really is. And you really, I tell you, I remember we started together Everything that was told to us. We just go out and do it. We just we do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you should always say yes to stuff. You should say yes If you don't feel like it's going to cause you any physical harm. You're just like, yeah, let's see, let's try it.
Speaker 3:No, that's awesome. And also, you do yoga on Sunday. What days you do yoga? I?
Speaker 2:do yoga. I tell people, if you're I really if you're a type of person you're like, oh, I see yoga, they're doing all this stuff, I don't know breaking the stretch and I can do all of that. I encourage them to try my Sunday class because I never get off the floor. Everything is on the floor. We have pillows and blankets and blocks and that type of yoga is actually designed. So you understand that supports are okay, it's good. It's okay if I'm in a pose and I need to put a block, because that works in life. If I'm doing something, it's okay to ask for support. I might need something over here, I might need that. So on Sunday it's more meditator and more relaxing. It's in. The intention is to stretch you, but also to stretch out those gaps, to stretch and create a gap in between your thoughts where you can actually relax?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. You gave us some great tips and some great information and I truly appreciate you coming on the Raysack Library podcast special edition art of relationships and self care. Definitely reach out to Evie because she has she's a wealth of knowledge. Go over her Facebook page. There's so much more that she's saying I'm talking about her jury, but go on the page of her website and I want to say I'm coming in for my next session in March when you come back and, mark, I'm coming in for my next session because I definitely hate it, but thank you so much for being on our podcast, ready to set, collaborate and on the QCEN, please make sure you follow, share, please share and just follow all of the different ones we have.
Speaker 3:This special edition in February is going to be awesome, but also we have other series coming up, so make sure you share and follow. And also we're going to have my YouTube channel. So make sure you follow and subscribe to my YouTube channel and make sure you subscribe to her. I'm actually going to Evie's. I'm sure you on YouTube as well, on the YouTube channel, subscribe to her channel as well. So, evie, thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you.
Speaker 3:I'm so happy to have you as my guest. To be able to share about self care is so important to relationships. Once you do your self care, you'll be more susceptible to healthy relationships Right.
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely, that's right, and you're putting time on inner and outer right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, absolutely Sure is. But thank you so much. I appreciate you, honey, you take care. Have a good one, all right, bye bye. Bye bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning into this episode of Ready Set Collaborate. For more information about the host, head to WDPiersonAssociatescom, and that's P-E-A-R-S-O-N. If you want to connect, send an email to Wanda at WDPiersonAssociatescom and, as always, stay tuned for the next episode of Ready Set Collaborate.
