The Powerful Tool of Nervous System Regulation with Amanda Nova

The Powerful Tool of Nervous System Regulation with guest Amanda Nova

In this episode we get to collaborate with Amanda Nova as she shares ways to regulate the nervous system, as well as WHY that is a good idea in the first place, and what can easily landslide in our health if we get out of balance.  Amanda is an expert in nervous system regulation and a holistic health practitioner, sharing practical tools and wisdom on health vitality, stress management, hormone balance, and gut health. We also discuss how chronic stress can lead to physical and emotional conditions, the role of the vagus nerve in nervous system regulation, the importance of gut health in overall well-being, and methods for detoxing the body for optimal health. We can’t really over-emphasize the value of self-care in maintaining health, but that may mean something different than the commonly used references to “just taking a bath.” Let’s break it down to it’s roots and begin healing from there in powerful, yet bite-sized ways throughout the day. 

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

02:02 Guest Introduction: Amanda Nova

05:07 Amanda's Journey from Illness to Healing

13:56 The Role of the Nervous System in Health

18:00 Understanding the Lymphatic System

27:34 The Importance of Nervous System Regulation

36:15 Understanding Chronic Stress and Its Impact

36:32 The Importance of Nervous System Regulation

36:47 Dealing with Job Stress and Personal Challenges

37:13 Building Resistance to Stress through Self-Care

38:34 The Struggles of Balancing Multiple Roles

39:03 Rediscovering Self in the Midst of Life's Demands

39:18 The Reality of Self-Care Amidst Life's Responsibilities

39:45 The Impact of Self-Care on Personal and Professional Life

47:16 The Importance of Boundaries in Self-Care

55:04 The Role of Hormones in Stress and Health

59:43 The Connection Between Gut Health and Overall Well-being

01:01:48 The Importance of Detox in Maintaining Health

01:03:11 Conclusion: The Interconnectedness of Stress, Hormones, and Gut Health

Amanda’s website: https://www.nebulasoul.com

   ( for her free e-book, titled  Even My Adrenals Are Tired, or to check out her courses on the vagus nerve, gut and hormone health or nervous system regulation, go to the menu tab and click shop.)

Transcript

0:00

Hello and welcome to the What Really Makes a Difference podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Becca Whittaker. I've been a doctor of natural health care for over 20 years and a professional speaker on health and vitality, but everything I thought I knew about health was tested when my own health hit a landslide and I became a very sick patient. I've learned that showing up for our own health and vitality is a step by step journey that we take for the rest of our lives. And this podcast is about sharing some of the things that really make a difference on that journey with you. So grab your explorer's hat while we get ready to check out today's topic. My incredible guest network and I will be sharing some practical tools, current science and ancient wisdom that we all need, no matter what stage we are at in our health and vitality. I've already got my hat on and my hand out, so let's dive in and we can all start walking each other home. Hello and welcome to the What Really Makes a Difference podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Becca Whittaker. I've been a doctor of natural health care for over 20 years and a professional speaker on health and vitality, but everything I thought I knew about health was tested when my own health hit a landslide and I became a very sick patient. I've learned that showing up for our own health and vitality is a step by step journey that we take for the rest of our lives. And this podcast is about sharing some of the things that really make a difference on that journey with you. So grab your explorer's hat while we get ready to check out today's topic. My incredible guest network and I will be sharing some practical tools, current science and ancient wisdom that we all need, no matter what stage we are at in our health and vitality. I've already got my hat on and my hand out, so let's dive in and we can all start walking each other home. I'm so excited today to introduce you to our guest, Amanda Nova. I actually found her on Instagram. So, you know, every once in a while scrolling pays off. I was searching up nervous system regulation and looking for people that were teaching tools that were easy to use and that were relatable. And Amanda does so much work in that space, sharing information with people. She shares it for free. It's amazing. Accurate information. And I have found a lot of the things that she's shared to be really, really helpful. She is so knowledgeable about so many systems in the body and shares information in a really relatable way. And from a place that I understand. So she had Lyme disease exposure to mold that created a real mold illness. And she had ankylosing spondylitis along with all of the things that autoimmune starts to destroy in your body. And after years of trying to solve it, only the medical path, she decided to dive into All kinds of other modalities and discover for herself what could help make a difference. So she has studied Ayurveda, herbalism, applied kinesiology, breathwork, traditional Chinese medicine, acupressure, embodiment and somatic practices. And she also got her master's degree in clinical nutrition. So she works with a lot of herbs, and genetics and lifestyle for disease. Prevention and also for disease states. So I had a fascinating conversation with her. It made me once again, grateful for a format in which I can have deeper conversations with people that, you know, you watch their things on Instagram or read their books. And on this format, we can ask more questions and dive more deeply. I think you're going to enjoy it. So without further ado, I give you Amanda Nova.

Track 1: 3:59

I am so grateful to be able to share this conversation with Amanda Nova today. I found her on Instagram. She has so much to say in beautifully cultivated ways about nervous system regulation, hormone regulation, gut regulation, and detox and lymphatic flow. And truthfully, if I was to think of the four things that physically can make a huge difference, it would be those four things. So I am really grateful that you said yes, Amanda, to coming on the show today, and I'm excited to get into the conversation.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 4:35

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

Track 1: 4:39

So I have heard more about your story than my listeners may have already, and I know you came from a place of Lyme disease, ankylosing spondylitis, all kinds of things that are really hard and that often people are told they are not going to heal from. I know that discouragement and that frustrating place, and I also know your bio now and the things that you've learned and are sharing so well. So I'm really interested to hear the story of how you went from being so ill yourself into coaching other people. Can you give me kind of a sketch of how that went in your life? Because you have so many different things you're certified in. I know that doesn't come without a story.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 5:26

I know, I know. It's, it's so interesting because I have a lot of certifications. I, I have a master's degree in clinical nutrition. However, I did not go to school for this originally. I actually worked in brand marketing for a really long time for over a decade. And I worked for big companies and startup companies, and that's really where a lot of my background came from. And then You get sick and somehow your life takes a different path. So I was always interested in health and wellness, but in a much different way. I also was a personal trainer and I was a health coach back before it was popular. Now everybody's a health coach But I did it back in 2013 I think, or 2012. And I was into it, but in a different way.'cause I worked in the food and beverage industry and I really just wanted to know and work for healthy food brands. And I started having chronic pain back in 2015. So it's been almost about 10 years now. And back then I just thought it was a workout injury in my lower back and I started exploring, you know, what that could possibly be. I started getting all of these chiropractic adjustments and you know, making things worse. But I was gaslighted, I. Constantly because I was like, oh, you're too young to have anything wrong, so it must be a muscle issue, or, you know, a disc issue. And so it kind of put me onto this journey of really having to advocate for myself and really having to learn what was going on in my body. So I, it took a very long time, but I went on this journey and educated myself to really become my own healer. And I, so I studied herbalism and I became herbalist. I studied kinesiology, which is muscle testing, so biochemical kinesiology. I hardly even remember half of the things that I've studied at this point. Right? I was kind of pulling all of these, these things together. Um, I spent some time studying Ayurveda, traditional Chinese medicine, and, um, I became a breathwork facilitator and, and Kundalini and, and all of these different things and yin yoga. The from, that's all that I can remember now, right? And I went to school to get my master's degree, but while this was going on, I was, I was really having to be my own healer. So I was just learning different things because I truly believe that healing or, or going into remission, right? Because it's not necessarily gone, you know, people have different belief systems on what happens. I tend to believe that healing is not linear. So we go through phases where we get our Lyme or our mold into remission and it can then pop up again, say you get covid or something happens and it kind of comes back. So for me it's always been about managing my illness, managing my symptoms so that I can function day to day and helping it into, into remission. So I've been on this journey of a, figuring out what was wrong, which I didn't find out until 20 20 is when I learned that I had Lyme disease. Learned that I had lived in chronic mold since 2015, so this was like all happening, right? And then mold sits on top of Lyme, and then the ankylosing spondylitis, which is inflammatory arthritis that starts in, in the spine, lives essentially in the spine. I didn't find out until, I think maybe 21, it was a little bit later, but the mold in the Lyme caused the as. I just happened to be susceptible to having it because my father has psoriatic arthritis. So I was susceptible to getting inflammatory, an inflammatory condition. Had I not had the Lyme and mold, I don't know if I would've ended up with the autoinflammatory condition and. In order for me to heal into remission and, and be where I'm at now, I had to work on the nervous system, work on the hormones. I had to pull all of the different levers that I had, and I couldn't find a doctor who had all of those different things. So I became

Track 1: 9:43

All right.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 9:43

that practitioner for myself and then, you know, and then became an educator for, for others.

Track 1: 9:50

Oh, that's so beautiful. I wanna go back to the beginning of your story to highlight something because I feel like when our bodies start to break down sometimes, and it sometimes it's hard to find answers as to why it could be so frustrating when we go to different doctors or talk to different people, and especially if you are younger when this is happening, when they look at you and they tell you, nothing is wrong. It feels terrible.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 10:18

Yeah.

Track 1: 10:20

I also had Lyme and did not know it, and I, in college it manifested, I didn't realize it was Lyme then. I thought it was a repetitive strain injury. I played the cello about eight or nine hours a day and my arms started to hurt. So that tells me, I mean, I was playing cello too much, but it did not recover with rest. And I remember going from doctor to doctor with my father and he was kind of, of the school of we, we don't go to the doctors unless we're bleeding so to go with me, which saved me I think, truthfully, from a lot of nonsense growing up. But when we would go and doctors would look at me and tell me nothing was wrong, or look at him and tell him it was all in my head. I feel this just kind of fire in my belly every time that I hear that has happened to other people. But what I think is interesting about that perspective now. It is difficult as a provider to find out what is really going on with every patient and diving into it. You have a series of things that diagnoses usually present with, and so many people are getting so sick where the traditional indicators of an illness are crossing over with other autoimmune conditions where hormone dysregulation is going crazy, where nervous system dysregulation is going crazy that I think it's honestly getting harder and harder to diagnose people because symptoms are, are flying all over the place. I mean, when I had my big health crash a few years ago, I saw three very high powered neurologists and all they could do was really like, send me to their other neurology friend because all of the symptoms crossed over each other. I think. I think your story and my story has so much overlap. But what I'm realizing is the more I talk to people, our stories overlap with so many other people,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 12:15

and I think I, and I always say too, like, you know, when you are a practitioner that's helping someone heal through these things, it's, it's almost like there's all these symptoms, right? And you wanna manage the symptoms, but also. It's, it almost doesn't matter what the diagnosis is. And I learned that too. And, and it actually almost harmed me in some ways because once I had my diagnosis, right,'cause I had more than one, that became my identity. And then I was living in this place of like, well I have Lyme. And I was like, Lyme was like my thing and Ankylos and spondylitis and I was like in that. And I almost had to abandon that a little bit in order to, to heal. And what I found is that at The root cause of most of these things, whatever it is, is some sort of stress, chronic stress, whether it's environmental, which could be toxins or illness, right? It could be physical. People are getting covid and then all of a sudden their mono from 20 years ago is coming back online. You know, it's, or these emotional stressors of, I'm seeing people who come to me and they had a trauma, you know, early on in their life, and now you know, they're in some state of chronic stress and then all of a sudden their Lyme comes out. So I am noticing that like there is so much crossover, but there is this common denominator at the root of it, which is like, it's not necessarily the tick, right? It's, it's that there is this chronic stressor on the physical body causing all of these symptoms.

Track 1: 13:53

Yes, yes, yes, yes. A million times, yes. I don't think we could overstate that enough because it was frustrating for me not to have a diagnosis, mostly because I knew something was going on and no one could figure out what it was. And I guess I mostly didn't want that experience again, of somebody saying, I'm making it up, right? I was like, no, put your finger on it so that I know what to do. Just tell me what it is and then I can run with it. But again, once you get the diagnoses, man, if you go to groups where people have Lyme disease. Or enclosing spondylitis or, I have a thing that happens with me called myalgia. Encephalitis, which is where my brain and spinal cord swell and the muscles hurt, all of them You go to the groups for these things and it is really hard to find light or motivation for healing. It. It's like you can enter a world where that is all there is and that is all there ever will be. To highlight and agree with what you were saying. Whatever it is, there are some things that we can do that end up being the things that help our body anyway, but I think two things are also true about that. Number one, it helps our day-to-day life to learn how to regulate our nervous system. Our hormones, our gut, and our drainage systems. It just does no matter what we have, we need to detox. We, our hormones control everything about how we feel and function. Pretty much our gut controls, how we detox, how we process the bacteria that are in our gut help or hurt us with heart disease, brain function, every, like, everything and nervous system regulation that does it all. So not only are we making life better no matter what we have, but we also can help our providers to be able to diagnosis, to diagnose something to help us, you know, like give a direction to go if we are doing what we can in our life in the first place. When I was dysregulated everywhere, it was hard to even find a starting point. And I remember when we would start, maybe if we started by going after we, we knew I had some kind of infection, but we couldn't find what it was and when they would start Doing herbal protocols or parasite protocols or anything? I, my symptoms would get much worse at first, and I realize now it's because my detox channels were not open. I had to do a lot more active work with my lymphatic work work and with my gut. Both of those systems needed to, to be better before I could even attack the disease. Does that make sense?

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 16:38

I mean, you can't, the, I always start with the detox as well. Like I always start with the detox, but you have to be doing the lymphatic work with the detox because the lymphatic system is your body sewer system. It is how our body eliminates things. I mean, we, and we have lymph nodes right in our gut too. So it's, everything is all connected. And I don't think that people always realize how connected these systems are, but you can't, you cannot methylate properly and get things out of those pathways if you are not opening those lymphatic channels. And a lot of people think their bodies just detox normally. They're like, I don't need to worry about that. But when you are sick or you have toxic overload, you're not, those pathways are not open. They, you're not detoxing properly.

Track 1: 17:30

E exactly what I like about your work, and so I, what I wanna talk about in conjunction with this is. You give people things that they can do that they don't have to be a doctor for, and they don't have to, you know, they can do in between their appointments with their naturopathic foot practitioner or their acupuncturist or chiropractor or medical doctor or whatever it is. The work that you do with lymphatics, let's just start there. So can you explain what the lymphatic system is? I know you said it's like your sewer system but can you explain a little bit more deeply for people who might not be aware, the what the lymphatic system is and then what you can do at home? Some options that you can have. I know they can check your Instagram for more specifics about how to do these things, but what they can do at home. And then if you need more help with detoxification, so if there's specific phases in your liver detoxification that are not working correctly, or if you need more follow up on the gut, then people can work. With doctors for more of that, but wow. Whatever we can do to help ourselves, especially if it's inexpensive and it feels good, let's do that.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 18:40

100%. I'm so, so, so big on, on self-healing and, and I am also big on medical healing.'cause I do think they have to work together. I, I love working with doctors and other practitioners because you need both of those things. I mean, if you break your leg, you're not gonna, you know, hopefully you're not gonna do reiki on and do just energy. Like, I mean, I, I believe in those things, but you know what I mean? Like, it has to work together. So our lymphatic system is our sewer system, meaning that it is the way our body moves water around is our lymphatic system. We have the lymph nodes. All over our body from our head all the way down our legs. So they are everywhere. So that means that they are impacting every single system in the body when our lymph nodes are not Draining properly. We have excess water weight, we have swelling, we have headaches. Also, things like anxiety and depression can happen if we are not properly draining our lymphatic system. And we can also get sick. So if, you know, if you maybe are somebody who you get a cold and it's lasts forever, it's because you're not properly, your body's not properly getting rid of those things, or you're coming in contact with a toxin because we all are all the time, right? If we're just living in the world, right? Your body can't eliminate those things properly if your lymphatic system isn't working properly. Our lymph nodes have two different layers. We have a layer that is right under the skin, and then we also have what's called deep lymphatic, our deep lymphatic layer, which lives in, in the gut. Luckily we can support our lymph easily at home by doing different things. So for that sort of light lymphatic layer that's, that's at the surface level, light touch, massage and also things like sweating or jumping on a rebounder can really benefit it. So things like dry brushing, if you've heard of dry brushing, which is literally just a brush that is dry you can, you just brush on your body and you always wanna be moving towards the heart so you can dry brush. I do a lot of cupping, so lymphatic cupping, which is putting oil on your body, which you're already kind of getting a nice little lymphatic massage by doing that. And then I have these cups where you actually use them to help move the lymph. You can, again, sweating.

Track 1: 21:13

I was just gonna say, I'm gonna pause you right there to explain a little bit more of that. So, cupping for anyone who hasn't heard of it, you've probably seen the big, like circle bruises on athletes in the, in the Olympics and acupuncture. We get that from acupuncture where they can put it over areas that have scar tissue or other problems. But I love the way that you do the cupping, which is more gentle. You're not gonna get those crazy bruises if anybody has heard. That they have their place too, but that's not this

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 21:43

Yes.

Track 1: 21:44

So moving it through and dry brushing. I used to hate, people would suggest it when I was doing cleanses'cause I had gut issues before I got really sick. But I hated the like bristly filling at first. You can get the bristle brushes in like the makeup section in lots of stores. But when I got a little softer brush, I just learned if you're really sensory sensitive, run your hand over the brush and find what works for you. But wow, my body started to crave it. I do it every morning before I get in the shower, you know,'cause my skin is accessible. But you wanna do it before your skin is wet. Make sure it's really dry. But wow, once you really start moving the lymph, I could feel the congestion that was around my ankles that was back behind my knee that goes around the lymph nodes by our armpits. And that's a big place that we wanna keep open and moving. It can decrease our incidence of breast cancer. It makes us smell better'cause those lymph nodes collect, you know, stuff from our sweat. So just a little word of those two things. You use silicone cups when you're doing the cupping. Is there a reason you like those versus glass cups?

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 22:53

So, so just a little bit of background on, on the cupping that I do. So. Back when I, so I've had a couple of surgeries on, on my back and after my first spine surgery, I went to a massage therapist and personal trainer who used to use those cups on me for muscular pain and, and relief of tension. And I had got them myself. And I started doing this massage and then I started realizing, wow, this is actually moving my lymph. And what I loved so much about it is that when you dry brush it, it is very light touch and all you need is very light touch for the, the lymphatic system in general. But a lot of people with dry brushing, you'll feel like, I don't know if I'm doing anything right. Like you said, like it kind of takes a little bit of a, a time to then be like, wow, I'm noticing a difference with the cups. You actually notice a difference right away. I think like, because it's a little bit deeper than, than the than the dry brush. So. The reason why. So in traditional Chinese medicine, you use glass and they stay in one place. The lymphatic cups with the silicone, they actually can glide a lot easier than if you were using glass. So it's a little bit of a different cupping than using the glass. You don't actually wanna create bruises all over your body, though. If you do leave a cup in one spot, you can have that, you know, you can accomplish that. The whole point of the glass cups is that you are bringing the blood flow to that area, which helps with circulation. It's not exactly as much focused on the lymph as doing the gliding cups, where that's really more cellular healing.

Track 1: 24:36

Okay, perfect. Because we have glass cups that we've used for scar tissue and problems around joints as, as in our chiropractic office, but I also noticed they don't glide as well. So that's, that's confirming Debbie here. Another note about lymphatic system, another thing you can do to support that is lymphatic system doesn't have its own pump, like our heart does for our circulatory system, like our craniosacral fluid has in the craniosacral system. How it moves is usually by our muscles flexing around it. Our muscles kind of massage. So the way I think about it is if you're moving more often, you know, moving, stretching, yoga, using a trampoline or rebound bound or something like that, your muscles really moving that out can really help. I think that's a big reason why when a woman that I grew up around when she was sick, she would literally just strap on tap shoes and put on a board on, on her floor and start tap dancing when she was sick. And I'm like, what are you doing Why aren't you resting and laying down? And she said, I learned, I've learned since I was young that if I will get up and do something where I move even just a little bit and then they back down and then move around again, that I get over it much faster. And I learned that from some emergency room doctors that I am friends with during COVID. They said what they really started to notice with COVID especially is if you stay in bed, more likely dead, get up and move. And a at least every when they were severe, they would try to get them up. They learned by, by the end of the big. COVID hit, they would get people up at least every hour or two to at least walk around the ward and back down for as long as they could, because if they didn't, they wouldn't be able to.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 26:28

get stuck. That's so interesting. And, and just another thing to point out about the tapping, which I think is interesting because the rebounding is a, is a trampoline, right? Where people are jumping up and down for people that dunno what a rebounder is and the lymph actually only moves in one direction. So the fluid in the lymph can only move up towards the heart, which is why we always move in that direction. So when you're jumping, it moves up, but it doesn't come back down. So that's why like when we're moving

Track 1: 26:55

Hmm.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 26:56

or doing something where we are kind of like jostling it a little bit for it to come up, that's also how we get it out. So it's so interesting that she was tapping because like they, they do kind of like that up and down movement

Track 1: 27:07

Yeah.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 27:07

bit. I love that so

Track 1: 27:08

Yeah,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 27:09

It's so fun.

Track 1: 27:10

it was cool. I picture her now. I bet she's still doing it and now she's probably in her late sixties. It would not surprise me the be that all if she just has the board and the tap. She's ready in the winter. Okay, so you work on lymphatic regulation, but your biggest thing you talk about is nervous system regulation and it just makes me so dang proud of you,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 27:32

Thank you.

Track 1: 27:34

because my experience and also the research I'm leaning into is pointing more and more towards that is kind of the elephant in the room that people didn't know to talk about, but that affects everything. Your nervous system affects every cell in your body. No organs work without it. No systems work without it. You can survive for what, one to two seconds without your nervous system being online when people. break that connection. Whatever is past it is lost. The nervous system is a huge deal, but it regulates more than just our breath and our gut and our liver and our big toe. It regulates so much of how we feel when we go into one way that it works, which is our, what we call fight or flight, our sympathetic system or we, it's now called fight, flight, freeze or fawn. And I'm glad that they have expanded that because there are, those are real reactions or when we are in our resting and digesting kind of mode or parasympathetic system. So can you speak more about how you leaned into that, how you found it was valuable, and then what are some of the things you think most important for people to know about nervous system regulation? Why you would do it and how you can do it.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 29:04

So like you said, the nervous system affects every single thing in our bodies, and our nervous system really is When it's regulated is what is helping us to be in a place where we can heal. If we are dysregulated, we really can't heal. Right? It's like sort of that ungroundedness, when we are in fight or flight, it's, it's impossible to, to heal. And I'll, and I'll explain a little bit why, but for me, I got into it really setting the vagus nerve and really becoming just an expert on the vagus nerve. And the reason is because the vagus nerve is really the switch between the parasympathetic and the sympathetic nervous system states, as you had said. Right? So between that sympathetic state where we are activated. Or the parasympathetic. And I always think p for, for peaceful and, and right. That's how I kind of remember that, that rest and digest, the vagus nerve is the switch. So the vagus nerve you hear so much about, and it's so buzzy, but it is the nerve that, you know, starts in our brain and it goes all the way down and it impacts so many different organs. It touches almost, almost every organ. And that's why it's, it's known as this wandering nerve, right? It's a, it's a branch and so it touches our gut, it touches our liver, it touches our lungs. So our nervous system really is controlling how our heartbeats, how, how we breathe, how we stay alive. Our, I always tell people that our nervous system Is there to keep us not only alive, but it is there to protect us. So when we go into sympathetic states, when we encounter a stressor, the sympathetic state is protection, right? It's to activate us. But what happens is, is that all of our body's energy starts running to the peripheral, um, limbs, right? So that we can fight. And our pupils, they, they dilate so that we can see better. Like we actually become in this activated state. Everything that happens to our body, our heart pounds, our, our, our breath, right? Everything that happens, happens so that we can protect ourselves from a stressor. So it's actually a good thing. However, we are supposed to be able to get into that sympathetic state and then come out of that sympathetic state. When we are in chronic states of stress, we are chronically in that fight, flight, or freeze, or fought. Because all the energy is still going to the limbs and to protect us. There is no energy going to the digestive system. There is no energy going to the liver. So we are unable to detox. We are unable to digest properly. What people don't know, when we talk about the, the vagus nerve and we talk about the brain gut connection, is that if our nervous system is dysregulated and our vagus nerve isn't functioning, we cannot digest our food properly. So we are constipated. People often will find undigested food particles in, in their stool. There's so everything is, is connected. So people that have heart palpitations or their heart rate variability, which is the ability right to your heartbeat fast and then come back down to a normal heart rate, that is all impacted by the nervous system. So for me, Personally, I was so dysregulated after Lyme and mold, like, I mean, just completely like a cat in a hot tint roof, right? Like everything was making me nervous. I was not digesting everything. I, my heart was pounding constantly. My temperature, my body was dysregulated. Everything was dysregulated. So in order for me to heal those things, yes, there was the element of detox. But until I got my nervous system under control, I couldn't get my hormones balanced. I couldn't get anything on, you know, I couldn't heal at all.

Track 1: 33:07

I would love to add in there. The symptoms you're talking about are really common symptoms that people don't really know what to do about if you're getting cold and you cannot warm up. That's a nervous system regulation thing. It can have to do with hormones. But hormones are also a part of regulating the nervous system. If you are reacting to tons of food, to everything that goes in your body, yes, there's gut healing. It's also a nervous system thing. When you're running from a tiger or you're under attack, you're not gonna be eating ice cream or stuffing in really heavy carby foods. Your body is not digesting whatever, whatever you are putting in. So sometimes when people are having food reactions, they get more stressed with the food reactions they have, which is actually increasing that stressed zone and making it so you're less able to digest, even if you had the right gut bacteria and you had the right enzymes. That's, and, and blood pressure. Blood pressure regulation is a thing that I still struggle with. I had low blood pressure in the first place, but then in, in going through all of this this stuff the last few years, then I further lost the ability to bring my blood pressure up. So tons of dizziness pots disease is what they call it, but it's basically when my blood pools more in my legs, then comes back up to my head when I stand up. And I've learned that's also really common. Or yes, heart palpitations, all the things that we associate with something being bad in our symptoms of our daily life where we, people can't figure it out. Temperature regulation, all the other things we've talked about, if you trace it back to a nervous system regulation, often they are really intelligent decisions the body has made. If we were running from a tiger. And we have to look at that as and really take a moment for it because our bodies are intelligent. They aren't stupid or trying to hurt us or just unable. But if we are constantly putting ourselves in situations where we either are unsafe or we feel unsafe or never getting, giving ourselves the opportunity to genuinely come back down out of the stress, then our body is doing exactly what it is designed to do. It's not fighting against us, we just have to kind of learn the code of what it's trying to do for us and then make more helpful decisions if we don't like feeling like that all the time.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 35:41

And I think the problem is too, is that we are no longer in a society where we are running from tigers regularly. And so the tiger has become an email like, your boss sends you an email, right? Like it's a sick relative. It's, it's become these things that are not, they're not small things, but they're everyday things that you're dealing with on a regular basis, which makes it really challenging to come out of fight or flight because it's kind of like being waterboarded a little bit. It's like you try to come out and then it's like something else happens. And you know, if you're in a job that you, that really causes you to feel. Unsafe. You know, maybe you're worried that you're gonna lose your job. So every single day you feel unsafe. That's how you get chronic dis dysregulation. And really the only way to deal with that is to be always working on your nervous system and do nervous system regulation. I mean, yes, you wanna take yourself out of these environments and you wanna remove it, but that's not always an option. I mean, I always tell people like you, yes, maybe you want to look for a job where you feel better, but. For a lot of people, there's no option to just up and quit your job, right? Or just move your home or say to your relative, sorry, you're sick. See ya. Like you can't do that, right? So you have to be just cognizant of taking care of yourself and regulating your nervous system regularly. And what that also does is it builds up resistance to stress. So the more you work on your nervous system and the more you work on your vagus nerve, the more that you strengthen that like any other muscle, you know, just working. It really helps you to be able to deal with, with stress big and small.

Track 1: 37:33

That is so beautifully said. Yeah. I think when my symptoms started in earnest, and most people I know that are experiencing a lot of dysregulation, it is those things that seem small. But don't feel small at the same at, at the time. And also stack up. So maybe you don't sleep well, you get up late, that means you're late for work. You have to hurry and rush and you're trying to slam breakfast in as you go. Maybe something stressful happens at work. Maybe you're worried about losing your job. Maybe there's like a manager you don't love or you have a job where you have to be on point thinking about others and managing a lot of different directions at the same time than we have a lunch break and maybe we have to fight traffic, or maybe we get a stressful phone call or whatever. We could do our day and then come home. And if we have relationship trouble and there's an argument or we have a, you know, four children to run to five different sports while we're trying to cook dinner, those are always like, I, I think of that as, as always points when I'm on point. Always. And I used to think, well, yeah, I wanna be on point, always, like always doing my best. This is the best version of Becca that I can be showing up. But really what I meant. in, in my reality was my best of everyone's version of me. How do I be the best for what everybody wants me to be? I wanna be the best employee for you, the best mom for you, the best wife for you, the best, whatever. And I think somewhere like so many other people, I lost just actually being Becca and it was when I found my way mentally and spiritually back to being myself over other people's expectation. Then I started to be able to give myself the time to regulate. I hear so much frustration coming from, especially middle-aged women because they're the ones I talk to a lot and open up with when they think they say. I think I feel like self-care or ways I could regulate myself is just another thing I'm failing at. Like how are you supposed to do self-care while you are also. Shuttling children and working full-time and doing your finances and taking care of the home, like it's just one more thing to fail at. And I think if we can shift that paradigm a little bit to, this is the most important thing is regulating your own self. Because until you do that, you are not really showing up well in the world anyway, and you end up getting sick and then you end up going down, or your finances crash, or your relationship crashes, and that doesn't really end up helping the world as much as you thought it would. Does that make sense? We end up giving so much more when we can show up from a place of being actually ourselves. And what I've learned is when I'm in the place of granting that some importance. Like, not, not as your wife, what do I need to do right now? But as myself, what do I need right now? Am I really amped? Do I need to take five minutes to just not, okay, dinner is not quite done yet, but I can feel like I am feeling really anxious or I am feeling really dysregulated. Everybody. I'm gonna pause I'm pausing dinner for right now and I'm just gonna go in my room for a minute and learning what to do at that point. Learning some breathing techniques, learning some ways to refocus your mind, learning some things to you teach acupuncture points that are nervous system regulating, learning tools like that to give yourself a little bit. It doesn't mean you have to take an hour bath at lunch every day, and it doesn't mean you can never have stressful conversations. It means that you are bringing yourself back as the important person in your life. The main one, the one that you realize if you stay regulated, you can continue to show up in your life in a kind, regulated way with tools to share and perspectives to give. If you get dysregulated, you're gonna be snappy, ornery, you're gonna burn out. And it's, it's, it's for what it's like for an idea of what you should be and you lose who you are.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 41:51

you're no good to anybody at that point. Like you can't pour from an empty cup. Right. And so that's, I, I'm so So 100% in, in agreement with what you said, because like, we wanna be the best, the best, you know, partner, the best, you know, mom, we wanna be these people, you know, the best business owner, you know, the, you wanna be all of these things. And then if you get sick, you, you can't be that.

Track 1: 42:15

Yeah.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 42:16

I don't know if you've noticed this in, in your experience working with people who are sick and, but, but I have that many of them are type A, my, myself included, people who

Track 1: 42:26

Yes,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 42:26

working, working, working, and then got sick. And what I noticed about myself is that I really was raised to work, work, work, go, go, go. And that's, and that's what I was always doing. And for me, it was never okay to take a break or not show up or call out unless something was wrong. And then suddenly my body. Manifested an illness, right? So that I could take a break. That was the only way I was going to allow myself to take a break. But guess what? I still had to work and I still had to go to graduate school. So I did not actually have a choice to stop doing that. And that's a lot of people. So then it's really your body screaming you to take a break. you know, I always say to people, there's a lot of information out there about self care. It doesn't, to your point, it does not have to be taking a bath for an hour, going to get a massage. It doesn't have to be glamorous. It has to be what works for you. You have to take what works for you and leave the rest, what I teach, you know, breathing exercises, acupressure points, those are things that you can do. In a minute, you know, go to the bathroom and, you know, do box breathing, which is, you know, counting to four, taking a breath in, right? And then exhaling, you know, holding for four, exhaling for four. Like, those are things that you can do really quickly that can take care of yourself so that you can recenter and come back as your best self. That you don't have to feel like, oh my God, this is another thing on my already crazy to-do list that I just don't wanna do.

Track 1: 44:06

Yeah,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 44:07

Like, it should feel good.

Track 1: 44:10

I think self-care is a secret that I hope does not remain a secret of what it really actually means. It means caring about yourself. I mean, really, if you like flip the words around so when I care for myself, then I maybe would make a little bit more time to eat so I could chew instead of like slamming it in while I'm driving in traffic. Or caring for myself can sometimes mean I am putting down my phone right now, even though I know there are more emails to handle. I know there are more text groups to respond to for the children's sports. I know there's all that, but I'm putting my phone down and I'm looking at my daughter and I'm talking to her while she's still young enough that she also wants to talk to me.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 44:58

Yeah.

Track 1: 44:59

like self, self care just means caring for yourself and that looks different at different times. It means that instead of sacrificing what you know, feels good to you and you know, helps you, instead of sacrificing that for some, for like your to-do list, which will never end. You take a little bit of time and you do what you know helps you and then that a. Helps your family, your business, your creativity, your ki like, it, it helps you be more you, but also I think is one of the very best anti-aging. Like I, I don't even like the phrase anti-aging. We are aging, we're intended to age, and in many cultures it is a beautiful process. It isn't a magnificent loss. Like we fill it here and it also isn't as rocky as we fill it here. And I think that's because the things that are shown now in research for helping you to age more gracefully, they are the things that help you live better today. It's caring for yourself. It's increasing your community. It's talking to your friends. It's making time for when you eat. It is taking the five extra minutes in the bathroom to do a breathing exercises. It's, it's the things that make life good now that turns out regulate your nervous system, help you age more gracefully and can help your body calm down. I mean, there's not a loss. It's not another Failure thing on your list, it's an invitation to come into the things that actually really make a difference. It doesn't cost you money. It doesn't cost you a massive time. It's, it's your life. It's inviting yourself back into your life. That's how I see it.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 46:41

and to your point too, like what about just laughing, calling up somebody that makes you laugh or watching a funny show? I mean, it's, it doesn't have to always be the same things. And you need different things at different times throughout your life and different times through the day. And so the main thing that I always tell people is, you know, you gather the tools, right? You learn things that you see and you pick up things and, and you take what works for you. But the best thing that you could possibly do is just check in with yourself in the moment, right? It only takes a second to say, what do I need right now? And.

Track 1: 47:15

Yeah.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 47:16

And the other thing that I think none of us, especially women were taught growing up is, is boundaries. And boundaries is coming in so large right now because you can't care for yourself without setting those boundaries, right? Like, so my thing is too, like if social media, let's say scrolling through social media makes you feel bad and watching a sitcom that you've seen a million times makes you feel good and safe.'cause you know what's gonna happen and you feel it makes you laugh and fills you up. Don't spend that half hour scrolling through social media and then feeling bad afterwards. Just do a quick check-in of like, what do I actually need right now? And put up a boundary of I'm not gonna do something that makes me feel better. I'm not going to read the text message that came from the person that Al always upsets me until the next day when I'm in a better place. Right? Like, it's just putting those boundaries up and to manage your yourself better so you feel better.

Track 1: 48:08

I'll share the best advice that I have ever been given about boundaries. It's from a mentor of mine named Ernest Morrow, and I struggled with boundaries because I was used to pushing. You said the people you find are at the highest percentage and people you work with are drivers, I would say it's drivers and pleasers. that end up

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 48:30

100%. Yeah.

Track 1: 48:32

yes. That end up overdoing and then crashing. Right. So I'm a lovely combination of both of those things and my problem with boundaries and others that I find is can you push to that thing? Can you take that text? Well, yeah, probably. Can you stay on your feet longer? Probably. Can you, you know, respond to all of these emails even though you really need to get up and move and your butt's numb and your legs hurt, and your jaw hurts? Yeah, probably like I can do. So many things, but I end up pushing. I was having a hard time finding the line between a healthy push, which pushes, you know, like pushes into productivity, but not too far or going way too far. All I knew was how to produce and push for the level of what I wanted it to be, and he helped me understand that the new information in my life and what I have been earnestly trying to work on. And that is when you're saying yes or no, it's, I can do that thing and stay myself, as in I am in the place of abeka for me. Like what do I wanna do right now? What fills in flow for me right now where I can stay in a place of sovereignty and in a place where I'm not doing a million things for everybody else. It's what I know I'm supposed to be doing in that day. I can do this thing and stay myself, or I cannot do this thing. And stay myself. So maybe I could answer that email except I'm starting to get tired and I'm starting to get Ony and it's probably not gonna be my sovereign self responding to that email so I can and stay myself I can't and stay myself.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 50:18

I love that so

Track 1: 50:19

And that for me made that boundary line a little less ambiguous. And ironically, it also means when I focus on staying myself on staying regulated would be the nervous system word for it. But when, when I do that, I end up being more productive because I'm doing things in flow and because I'm doing things while I still have myself, which means I have my creativity, I have my regulation, I have better ideas and then I know when to stop to reel it back in. If I'm starting to get really tired or ornery or feel draggy, or I know if I eat, it's gonna make me bloat. Then I stop for a minute and I take a little time. And then I go back in and I end up being just far more productive. But at the end of the day, I'm not completely gassed. I think it, it was wonderful

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 51:08

You're not, you're not fried. And, and yeah. I mean, when you're Responding to things when you're activated and you're in that sympathetic state too, like that's when mistakes get made. Like that's how I would experience too, is like I would do things so fast that because I was always trying to produce more, and when you're so dysregulated in that way, mistakes get made. Yeah. You can be irritable with people. So I do think for healing, for living, for showing up as who you authentically are in your life, is managing the nervous system. And you can really do that with breath work. So learning breathing exercises that are really, really simple, you can do that with things like acupressure. You can do that with things like singing and laughing. Those two things can work. The vagus nerve, which again impacts the entire body as well as the nervous system. So it's all different kinds of things and it's just finding what. Works for you. What feels good in your body? For me, the biggest thing is, is breath work and breathing. And I make that a priority. I don't have a lot of time for a lot of things right now. I'm in, you know, infant stage coming out of newborn. You know, my, my baby is five, a little over five months and I really had a big learning experience while being pregnant about boundaries and, you know, coming into postpartum 100%. And so all I really have time for is to pick and choose, right? Like, am I gonna shower? Am I gonna eat? Am I gonna breathe? And I, you know, what am I

Track 1: 52:47

Yes, yes.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 52:48

Like, you're kind of, you do this like opportunity cost, and, you know, besides personal hygiene, which we try to, you know, keep on point. I don't have

Track 1: 52:58

That is just honest. That is just honest. I don't know a single mother that doesn't, you know, have to weigh if she showers or not at that stage,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 53:08

I mean, I,

Track 1: 53:09

or look at your clothes and realize how many like forms of go are there and be like, well, I guess the days in which I was pretty are paused for a moment.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 53:17

I'm someone that was like, you know, always like, yeah, like, take a salt bath. Now I take baths with my baby because that's how I have, that's how I can take a bath and also have room for something else, right? I'm like, like I know. I'm like, oh, my husband gra taker. And now I could like, you know, spend five minutes in the bath by myself, you know? So like, it's just, you know, figuring out what those things are. And so I always make time to breathe and that's just, that is what works for me. And so it's just finding those things for you, and you do have room for those things because you can find pockets. Here and there in the car. I tell a lot of people, sing in the car, scream in the car. I, when I was at a really bad place in, in my life, I used to drive upstate and on the highway, and I would just sing my heart out and I would just scream at the top of my lungs. And I'm sure that

Track 1: 54:09

Hmm.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 54:09

by were like, who is this psychopath that's screaming in their car? But,

Track 1: 54:14

I love being the crazy dancing singing lady when I am by myself in a car.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 54:19

a maniac. But like, those are the things, right, of like, okay, like you can find a way to fit it into your life and, and just, and just feel good.

Track 1: 54:30

Yeah. Oh yes, a million yeses. I know I have taken most of our time on nervous system regulation, but that is because I think it deserves most of the time there are more and more people beginning to speak about it, but I think it deserves a good deeper dive. You do have two other areas though, that I know you speak about, and I'm wondering if we can give at least a few minutes to each of those. I love that your course is called what was it Nourishing Your hormones or,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 55:01

Oh, the Course.

Track 1: 55:03

yes. So how, what are ways that people can nourish their hormones? Much of my audience is, you know, male and female in their forties and fifties, late thirties, and things are really starting to change in their hormone levels and in their life in that regard. So what are some things you can do to nourish your hormones

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 55:26

So hormones are connected to everything as well, which is why, you know, I try to cover these things that are all sort of intertwined in a way. And I work with a lot of women who are perimenopausal or, or menopausal and you know, so for people who are still cycling and menstruating, it's really about learning your cycle and where you're at in your cycle. And there's different ways to support both lifestyle and food wise and, and beyond that I work with a lot of women who are about to be put on hormones or who are put on hormones. And so what I think is important for people to know both men and women is that you can support your hormones with food. And, and herbal supplements. It doesn't always have to be shots of testosterone for, for men who are aging, it doesn't always have to be estrogen pills, although those things can be supportive from a medical perspective, there are things that you can do. So I think just getting, you know, some information on your body, what you need. So if you do need more estrogen, there are things that you can eat. You know, things like pumpkin seeds, things like yams. You know, there are different foods that you can eat that are supportive. And also doing some of this nervous system work and the stress work because our hormones are balanced via how our adrenals are functioning, which are our stress. Glands. So again, making sure that you're in this state of parasympathetic can be so nourishing to your hormones. Um, and lastly again, because everything's connected, detox is a really big thing. So a lot of people are estrogen dominant because so many toxins act like estrogen within the body. And so a lot of people will have all these symptoms that we're talking about and maybe they really don't have Lyme, but they have estrogen dominance or they, there's a big connection between mold and Lyme and then ending up in hormone imbalance because everything, right, it's like a domino effect. So

Track 1: 57:32

yeah.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 57:33

detoxing can help get the estrogen out of our bodies. So again, working on the lymphatic system, working on detox can help us to move some of those things out.

Track 1: 57:45

Oh, that's such a great recap. I have done episodes already with doctors who have done a deep dive into hormones, and that was one of the themes I think that really comes across is your stress levels relate so much to your hormone regulation. That adrenal glands, they are called adrenal because of adrenaline that they secrete when we are stressed. But if you are not giving yourself nourishment, then in the adrenal glands, then it deregulates your hormonal system also, and our society teaches us otherwise. It's like. oh, if you're tired, then make sure you pick up some coffee

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 58:28

Right.

Track 1: 58:28

in the morning. And then also make sure you drink some more at lunch so that you can be productive in the afternoon. But sugar and coffee are two of the biggest things that are, that hit our adrenal glands hard. So instead of having the nap like they would do in South America in at that time of early afternoon, then we try to charge it back up, which destroys our adrenal glands. Then they get more dysregulated and they're trying to just, you know, sort of squirt out the basics that they can do to give us what we need. And it is not enough to regulate our hormones. Then they fall apart and we feel either overly emotional or overly bitchy or, or, or just very foggy thinking, which doesn't help us produce anyway. It's like when you really zoom out in the cultural teachings, they're crazy making, and I think that's what It has made us. It is crazy where when you focus in on taking care of yourself, if you self-regulate a little more, that helps your nervous system, helps your adrenal glands, help your hormones, and as we'll talk about next, also helps your gut. So can you give me the basics of what you teach about the gut? Because I'm interested in that

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 59:45

Yeah. So, so I will say too, that so much of, of what I teach at the core is really about chronic stress and the way that our emotions manifest within, within the body. So I actually have, I just wrote an ebook on chronic stress in the adrenal system and, and how it affects the hormones and all of that stuff. And the

Track 1: 1:00:05

Oh, what is that called? And how can, oh, sorry. What is that book called and how can people get a hold of it? I can put it in the show notes.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 1:00:14

Are Tired, my Chronic Guide to Stress and Adrenal Fatigue, and that is on my website. So it's an ebook so anybody can get it and download it. Super easy.

Track 1: 1:00:25

That's beautiful. Even my adrenals are tired.

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 1:00:28

Even my, even my adrenals are tired. Like everything is fatigued, right? Like, okay, even my adrenals. And that's what's going on. And I talk a lot about how the different hormones are impacted and just the, just the way stress works. On a physiological body physiologic, physiological perspective. Hello. I'm I'm getting there. And it's four o'clock here in New York, so I'm, I'm, my brain is starting to go. But yes, the gut, I, I do talk about, about the gut. I don't talk about the gut as much as I used to in the gut is super duper important. The only reason why I don't talk about it as much anymore is because so many people talk about the gut. And I'm so grateful for that because we need to be talking about it. But you know, as I was saying earlier about not having time to digest, when the nervous system is, is acting up, I mean, everything is really happening together and the gut is producing our neurotransmitters and our hormones, right? Majority of our serotonin, which you know, is a neurotransmitter, is produced within, within the gut, as you know. And, you know, I learned that that bacteria in the microbiome. Can really impact anxiety and depression, mental health issues. I don't think people really understand that there's that physical conditions and mental and emotional conditions are really start there and then it goes right back to the vagus nerve, right? The nervous system. And it's, it's all connected and gut health, the, the way that I look at healing everything is, is detox. Get everything out that, that needs to get out and then, you know, go and heal and rebuild, right? So that's the same thing with the gut. You know, you remove the things that are causing inflammation within the gut, like, you know, intolerances and, and it's not always just gluten and dairy. I have clients who do tests and they're, we have blueberries, give them inflammation within their gut, right? So there's so many different things, but just, you know, removing those things and then going in and rebuilding the lining of the gut and, and repopulating with, with good bacteria.

Track 1: 1:02:32

Yeah. Ah, perfect. Well, if the name of the show is what really makes a difference, I think the theme of Our conversation is what really makes a difference is helping regulate your nervous system and making sure you can detox. Then your body knows what to do. I think we can trust our bodies to know what is the most intelligent decision it can make in the state we are in. And the surprising information is we have a lot to do with the state that we're in. The more that we learn about caring for ourselves and the more that we learn to make that a priority and the better tools we have. So it, it isn't the old messages of just take a bath and try to calm down like so that it is usable tools within our day. Then the more we can make a difference for ourselves, which helps our doctors help us, whichever kind of doctors we're using and which helps us age and what's helps us be there for our family. So if I had to pick the thing that makes a difference. It would be that. And if I had to pick a person to follow, to watch in little minute and a half snips, and try some things to see how it feels. It would be you, Amanda. So will you, I will share all of this in the show notes, but can you tell people how they can get ahold of you, what your website is, what your socials are,

amanda-nova_2_01-10-2024_151109: 1:03:51

Sure. So my social is Amanda Nova Wellness, and I have all different kinds of virtual classes on the nervous system. I have one called Find Your Nerve, which is a workshop of really, really great and all the tools and I just teach it all. And my website, I just changed it. It's called Nebulous Soul, where I am going to be really teaching people how to remove the things from their body that are causing pain and suffering. So you can find all the stuff on my Instagram and also on my new website.

Track 1: 1:04:25

That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. And I look forward to where it'll go and the people that can be introduced to your work. Thank you so much.

1:04:44

Um, see why I was looking forward to that. I love talking to people who care about helping other people and know what it is like to sit in the seat of a patient and then figure out the things that really make a difference, helping you move out of it. If I could create a cliff notes of that conversation, I would say it is that. Our nervous system is regulating our body all the time, and it's normal and even necessary to go in stress responses and then to come back out of them and go into rest and regulation. But when we don't, when we have chronic stressors, and we don't regulate back down out of them, So remember that a chronic stressor doesn't necessarily mean just too much on your to do list or too many hours at work. A chronic stressor can be chronic pain, which is there like static in the background all the time, or an illness that your body is constantly fighting. Um, even perhaps under the radar like mold, Lyme, breast implant illness, um, mono, all kinds of things like that can create a chronic stress in the body. So when you're balancing, you know, so when you're balancing what you can do in a day, if you are fighting an infection or you're dealing with chronic pain, remember that takes up a certain amount of your bandwidth and puts you already in the zone of a stress response. So bringing that back down is even more important and Even more helpful. Truthfully, we talked about self care as a way to do that. And we do not mean Just taking baths more often though. That's really great Remember self self care can be short bits of things that you do to give yourself rest or to show care for yourself for more Uh, interesting and effective nervous system regulation techniques, um, acupressure points and self massage and lymphatic flow and all of the things that help with that, tune into her website. She has wonderful classes or find her on socials and I will have all of those links in the show notes. I'm really grateful to have next week's guest on as well. So just to get you thinking ahead about it. Her name is Dr. Liz Letchford, and she is a genuine expert in the field of myofascial unwinding. She has a master's in biomechanics, in kinesiology, and she's an athletic trainer, but she is just so much more than that. She teaches one of the most conscientious, kind. Um, and deeply effective methods that I have ever come across for trauma and tension release in your body. Um, some of us know what it feels like to store trauma in your body or to store stress in your body and, or have injuries that just do not seem to heal or, um, place on your body that, you know, gets injured a lot, um, constantly bumping your knee or constantly hitting your head. She teaches why that can happen and why injury or trauma can actually block our feeling of being embodied, why we sort of disconnect from our body and then the stress and the tension and the injuries build up. So she teaches a method about how to go into your body to work with it, to help it release. And it is one of the. Best regulation tools that I know. So I think it's wonderful to be speaking to both of these women so closely together because their information relates to each other. We also go into a lot of other juicy bits of information, like why female athletes get hurt more often than male athletes. And the answers may be very different than you have been taught, according to her research. Um, We also talk about courage and what part courage has to do with healing our own trauma or stressors. We talk about boundaries and we talk about some really fascinating ways in which she learned boundaries and can share them. She is the creator of a thing called Body Church, and she is releasing lots of really interesting courses. She's just one of my favorite people. Truthfully, I'm so honored to have her on our show and I'm excited to tune in with you next week. So I'll see you then.