Journey to Well
We are not created to do this healing journey or life alone. In fact, it was Bessle Van Der Kolk who expertly shared “healing happens in the presence of an empathic witness”. That is the heart of this podcast & my business : to witness. You can expect a plethora of conversations on nervous system regulation, breathwork, human design & astrology, cycle alignment, energy & spirituality work and so much more. We are all on a journey back home to ourselves, rediscovering our innate power within & I am thrilled to take this journey to well with you. be well xx
Journey to Well
Hot Girl Nervous System: How to Stay Regulated When Life (&Temps) Heat Up | Solo Pod
Summer brings a natural surge of energy & activity, but what if we could experience this vibrant season without ending up exhausted and depleted? That's exactly what we're diving into today in today's solo pod.
Claiming this as "the best summer of my life" (and inviting you to do the same), I'm sharing how understanding your Human Design energy type creates a foundation for sustainable summer energy. Whether you're a Generator needing to follow what genuinely lights you up, a Manifestor honoring your sprint-and-rest cycles, a Manifesting Generator learning to say no despite FOMO, a Projector requiring intentional breaks, or a Reflector following surprise and delight – your energy type offers a roadmap to summer alignment.
For women, I explain how our menstrual cycles create another layer of energetic awareness. By aligning summer activities, you can honor your body's natural rhythms instead of pushing through. This isn't just theory – I share personal examples of how this understanding has transformed my approach to social plans and self-care.
The cultural narrative tells us that pushing harder equals greater happiness, but my experience shows the opposite is true. The less I do, the more mindfully I check in with my body, the greater flow I experience.
As a practical tool, I teach the cooling Sitali breath to help regulate your nervous system when summer intensity feels overwhelming. This simple technique brings you back to embodiment – the true superpower behind sustainable energy.
What if, instead of reaching September feeling drained, you finish summer feeling deeply nourished? Join me in this conversation about creating a summer guided by alignment rather than obligation. Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more nervous system regulation practices as we journey through this season together!
Let's connect on social media! You can find me @ _journeytowell
Be sure to reach out and say hello 🤍
Book your Intro to Human Design Chart Reading here!
Ready to dive deep? Explore our signature 1:1 coaching experiences ALIGN or EMBODY here!
Craving guidance, expansion or growth? Let's connect.
https://journeytowell.net
Book your 1:1 virtual Soma+IQ™ Breathwork session or Human Design chart reading, learn more about my coaching packages & find Seacoast NH in person events - all on my website ⬆️
be well, my friend
xx Hannah
Good morning. If you're listening to this in the morning, welcome back to the podcast Journey to Well. I am your host, hannah, and I have not done a solo podcast episode. I mean, I didn't even look and count back, but it has to be at least three months, probably more, and I am so excited to hang out with you all today. I love doing these solo podcasts because it's just a time that I personally feel like we are just hanging out.
Speaker 1:I have my morning mushroom coffee, but coffee, and I imagine us just kind of sitting on the couch having a conversation and just chatting, so hopefully that you, hopefully you can get comfortable. And it feels similar to you as well, because one of my goals for this podcast, for my community, my social media community and everything that I'm creating, is truly to build relationships and connections. And it's a little bit odd sometimes to be talking to a camera and a microphone and not be sitting next to someone and having a conversation, but that's how I imagine it, because that is that's the goal for me to create this intimate community even on social media, which sounds very opposing. But I digress, let's take a sip. So today I really want to talk about summer energy. This is going to be a little catch up episode of where the heck is Hannah in the world and her life, as well as how can we keep our nervous systems regulated? Another word for that is just how can we stay fucking sane throughout the summer? The summer tends to be really high energy, really busy, and it can feel very draining if we're not mindful. And yet we can make these small shifts by looking at our human design, energy type, by looking at where we are in our menstrual cycle and by taking some moments to practice meditation, grounding, breath work. I'm going to give you some breath work exercises that you can incorporate into your summer activities so hopefully we get to the end of the summer together, feeling rested, feeling excited that we just had one of the best summers of our lives.
Speaker 1:I am claiming it right now and stating it with you as my witness this is going to be one of the best summers of my life and I want to invite that invitation for you and that statement for you as well. So, hot girl nervous system, let's talk about it. Girls and boys. Obviously, a lot of my audience is female oriented, but if you are a male listening to this, don't turn it off because there's a lot of my audience is female oriented, but if you are a male listening to this, don't turn it off, because there's a lot of really beautiful tidbits in here that are going to be very supportive for you as well, and or supportive for you to share with the women in your life, whether that's a partner, your mom, your sister, your best friend. So should we start with the with the tea? Should we start with updating you on my life?
Speaker 1:The past few years have truly been a whirlwind. If you listen to some of my solo podcast episodes, you'll get these tidbits and updates on my life. I am feeling very much that I am at another crossroads in my business where I am honestly ooh, let's get real intimate. Not sure that I wanted to share this, but it's coming up so we'll share it. I'm honestly at this point in my life where I'm considering how much do I want to do virtually? How much client work do I want to do virtually on Zoom and allow these clients to come into my life from all over the country and all over the world? Or do I want to switch to more in-person work? I'm finally at a place where I know that I'm going to stay in New Hampshire.
Speaker 1:I spent the past 10 to 11 years living in different states and different towns and really experiencing so much of the world and different cultures and different people and I loved all of it. And I was away from my family for 10 years and away from my niece and nephew and my parents and my sister and my dad and I didn't know how much I missed them until I came back and I didn't know the depth that I missed them. I knew that I missed them a lot, but I didn't know the depth to which I missed them. And and it's more of this soul craving and that really goes to show we just know when we're living in alignment and we know when we're not living in alignment. And when we're not living in alignment we try to convince ourselves that we are. Like when I was living in right outside of New York, it was one of the most fun experiences of my life. I 1000% do not regret it and I learned so much and I grew so much and it was not in alignment with who I was and for so many reasons. I mean I'm not a city girl, I'm definitely a country girl.
Speaker 1:I was away from my family, I was away from my best friends, like away from my people and my tribe and that's really where creating a tribe was birthed, because I felt so alone after I got out of that seven yearlong relationship and learned so much right, like there's so much to learn there but there was a piece of me that was missing and now that I'm back in New Hampshire, that piece, that final like puzzle piece it's there. It's just there and I didn't have to do anything besides move, come back home. Home to me has always been people. It's never been a place and I can make a home anywhere and I did make a home multiple places, but finally I, my soul, is at home. So I'm feeling very much at this.
Speaker 1:That was a tangent, but very much in this crossroads of do I this? That was a tangent, but very much in this crossroads of do I shift my business to more in person, one on one work where we are combining breathwork and human design and a little bit of cycles and you know some like crystals and tarot and energy work and Reiki and all the things like crystals and tarot and energy work and Reiki and all the things or do I continue the trajectory that I'm on? So that's something to marinate on, a little seed to plant, and if you have any advice or downloads that come to you, feel free to reach out. I'm totally open to hear them. Life is good Life. This is going to be the best summer. I just feel very calm, very aligned, very in flow, and let's talk a little bit about some of the ways that this has been created in my life by learning and diving deeper into my human design and my cycle, my human design and my cycle.
Speaker 1:So here is the juice of the podcast we're going to start with talking about human design, energy types and how learning your human design energy type can help you ride this summer wave without over committing and burning out, without coming to the end of the summer and being like that was a whirlwind. I felt like my feet never hit the ground, um, and I had a lot of fun, but I'm exhausted. A lot of clients that I work with, a lot of conversations that I have, are centered around I feel very exhausted and like the life that I'm leading. The lifestyle that I'm leading is not sustainable and I'm not really sure what shifts to make, because it can feel very overwhelming. So let's go through the five different energy types. If you are listening to this, I'm going to assume that you've heard other podcasts of mine. If you have not, great Welcome. So happy to have you here. And there's a podcast that I'm going to link at the bottom of the show notes that goes over more in depth the five energy types of human design. So I'm just going to kind of breeze through them for time's sake and for not repeating too too much. But go, go and listen to that episode after you listen to this one, because I'm still going to lay a pretty strong foundation.
Speaker 1:So we have five different energy types in in human design. Those five the, the, the energy types are how our energy most easily flows and how we can use this knowledge to live in a little bit more of alignment and connection. You all can think back and maybe this is a fun exercise to do right now to think back to a time in your life where you just felt like life was really flowing, like there was a lot of ease, there wasn't a lot of resistance, it just felt like, you know, pieces were just kind of falling into place and and life was good. Those might have been situations in your life where you've incorporated more of this alignment to your own energy without even knowing it. So kind of keep that in the back of your head as we're talking and begin to make some of those connections. So the five energy types we have are generator, manifester, manifesting generator, projector and reflector, and all of these energy types have their own little characteristics and have their own superpowers, and in this podcast we're going to talk about how we can use each energy types superpower to align and really thrive in summer. In the other podcast episode I'm referencing where we're just kind of going over the basics of each energy type. So totally two different conversations but same conversation topic of energy type. So let's start with generators. Generators are I always think of them like this like generator, like a generator when you lose power. They have this big battery and they're really here to generate energy into the universe, into their lives and other people's lives. However, just like a generator needs some sort of battery source, it needs to bring that energy from somewhere we need as generators.
Speaker 1:Your invitation is to make sure that you're really doing what lights you up. So one of the invitations for you as you are moving through this summer is asking yourself what lights me up and playing around with it. This is the summer of curiosity, of play, of exploration. What lights me up, what brings me energy? And, to be honest, it's going to light you up when you think about it or when you hear about it. So it might be that you need to do some exploration of, like, what are fun events happening in my area? Or, um, yeah, talking to a friend and saying, like, what you know, what are your most fun summer activities, and hearing them. Right, because generators, their strategy is to respond, and so we need something to respond to. So you need that stimulus of um, let's go play volleyball on the beach. Let's go for a summer hike, let's go explore a new area. Let's go to this watershed or this um little pond and go for a tube ride. Let's go hike a mountain that we've never hiked before. Let's go try this new ice cream shop. Right, when you hear something, one of those things, even the things that I just listed, one of them are gonna spark a little bit more energy, a little bit more interest than others, and so your invitation is to follow what lights you up.
Speaker 1:Your additional invitation is to begin playing around with saying no to what doesn't light you up. So if somebody asks you to go do an activity in the summer and you feel in your body this, like weight or this heaviness, or you feel that it's a no, whatever, that looks like to you and this is something that I really work with a lot when I do one-on-one client work and I'm happy to have a conversation in like an even an intro to human design call if you want to book one of those to get your chart read, we can talk about like learning what a yes and what a no feels like, what lights you up and what drains your energy feels like. But begin, begin kind of marinating on that and playing around with saying no to what doesn't light you up, because generators, especially manifesting generators as well, but generators especially we need to our gift. One of our superpowers in this world is to bring energy and light and vibrancy to the world and those around us. And if we are not feeling that, it's not going to permeate through the rest of society either. And it's not even about the other people, it's about you and you deserve to walk through this world completely lit up and on fire all the time.
Speaker 1:My manifestors manifestors are such a fun energy type to me it's maybe it's because I'm a combination of manifestor and generator, but our manifestors, your invitation this summer is to play around with and explore your energy ebbs and flows. Manifestors are very much sprinters in the world, so they might have so many fun ideas, so much like. Manifestors are truly here to bring new things into this world. And so this summer, playing around with like what is this new idea, this new activity, this new perspective that I can bring into my world and with my people, with my community and my tribe, whether that's just like an experience, whether that's a new business idea, whether it's a new relationship to try a new food to cook like a new dish to create there's so much potential here. New food to cook, like a new dish to create, there's so much potential here.
Speaker 1:But really settling into beginning to feel when you are sprinting and when you're resting Because the thing about sprinters is they do short distance runs very, very quickly and then they rest and then they pause. So for my manifestors, really leaning into beginning to feel again in your body, when am I feeling very lit up, when am I feeling very inspired and then when am I feeling like it's time to take a break and your invitation it's time to take a break. And your invitation, your other invitation for this summer, just like generators had to. Your second like thing to be aware of or be aware of, is informing the people in your life when you're in that rest period, because it can feel like, oh, like life of the party, she has so many great ideas, there's so much like creative creativity and exploration, and then she just like, or he just drops off the face of the earth. Um, make sure that you inform your people like hey, this is my time to rest. I might not be as in it or on it this weekend or this week. I'm going to take some time for myself and kind of be a little bit more introspective. And that is when you are rebuilding, and that's really actually when you're getting your ideas and your downloads is in that rest cycle, and then you can go act on them whenever you feel like I have come out of that rest cycle and it doesn't.
Speaker 1:And like rest is such an interesting term to me because we all have these different connotations, so it doesn't mean that you're just like laying on the couch, sleeping for a week. Um, it could be more, uh, time alone for you. It could be taking like more walks, doing a little bit more grounding. It could be like spending time with that, like just one person that really brings you energy. Or it could be taking naps and just like watching TV or doing meditations, or maybe going on some sort of like personal retreat whether it's a scheduled retreat or not like just I don't know going up to the mountains for a weekend or a week or, you know, going camping or something whatever feels restorative for you. Do that. Don't just think rest as taking naps all day, but if that feels restorative, then do that.
Speaker 1:Manny Jens, my Manny Jens, I am a Manny Jen manifesting generator. So we're this beautiful combination. I will say manifesting generators are probably the most quick moving in all of the energy types and that could be like a really great example. Is is typically like, if I get an idea for something, I act on it right away. I don't really ponder it for a long time. Um, I do slow down and make sure that I have like all my ducks in a row, because I know myself now and I know my energy type. But like, for example, I had an idea to record this podcast last night at 5pm and now it's 8am in the morning and I'm recording this podcast like I had to do it before I even went to work. I'm like, no, we have the downloads, we got to do this. So that's mani gen energy. They tend to like to spin a lot of plates in the air and summer is just this like whole other lane could be this whole other lane of let's just do all the things.
Speaker 1:I don't want to say no, I'm super excited to do, you know, to try all the things, to experience all the things. I'm a 1-3 human design profile, so like learning by trial and error and experimentation and research are all up my alley. And really learning here's the invitation really learning to navigate, just like generators, how to say no to what doesn't light us up. We do have that generator, energy of, like the physical generator, and that potential to bring energy and light and levity and flow to the world and those around us, as well as ourselves, when we're doing what lights us up. So if we're not doing what lights us up, life feels much more forceful and we feel more tired and overwhelmed and burnt out. So, navigating what lights me up, slowing down enough to ask myself and discover where, like energy building in my body feels like what being lit up feels like, and then what my no feels like. For me it's very much this, like push back, it's this. Sometimes it's like a tension or like a constriction in my belly. To me it's like typically very bodily no, but I mean, if you have a defined spleen center and your center for intuition, like it could just be, this feeling of this is just not right for me. And trusting, just like the manifestor, just like everyone, honestly, we all need rest, we all need breaks and trusting when I say no to something and it leads to maybe not having plans that evening. This is my time to reboot. This is my time to regenerate, so then I can say yes to the things that I really want to say yes to. All right, two more and then we're going to get in a little bit into cycles and then our breathwork tips. It's so funny.
Speaker 1:I always feel like I talk so long in these podcasts because I'm not used to speaking completely by myself. I have so many guests on my podcast, so I'm looking and I'm pretty sure it's only been 20 minutes, but it feels like I've been talking for an hour. So let's talk. Projectors and then reflectors. Projectors you are the great guides of the world. And in summertime especially because summer energy just cyclically brings like higher energy, more output, feeling a little bit more outgoing, wanting to be outside, I mean, the weather is nicer, hopefully, where you are. So there's a lot of this extroversion and it and it's not that projectors are introverted at all. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that projectors do very well with taking breaks because, as a projector, you should look at your human design chart. You'll see all these shapes.
Speaker 1:Projectors, most of them, have less defined centers than generators and manifesting generators. So really I mean we're kind of looking twofold of like how many defined centers do you have? How many undefined centers do you have? How many colored in centers is defined? How many white or not colored in centers is undefined? So like I'm thinking of my mom. She's a projector. She has two defined centers. I have, I think, five defined centers or four. No, I think I have five.
Speaker 1:So why projectors do really well taking breaks is because it's getting out of other people's energies fields. Those undefined centers tend to absorb other people's energy a lot more easily than the defined centers do. So when we get out of people's energy fields like literally retreat, take time for ourselves whether that's 20 minutes or an entire day or an entire weekend, that is up to you to discover. But what you're doing is taking that time to like, clear your energy so then you can come back to your family, your people, your summer plans with a clarity and with this again, with this alignment, and feeling more at ease and less burned out. So my projector is, your invitation is to really explore how much regeneration time do I need, like, how much recoup time do I need? Is it one like, one for one? Like is it like one busy day and then one calm day? Is it two for one, is it one for two? Um, there's no right answer per se like that I could tell you, because it's really exploring for yourself. Exploring rest in the summer, that might be like a huge thing for you, depending on where you are in your life. But exploring what does rest feel like for me, what is restorative for me? Kind of like the manifestor invitation like is it going out on a retreat? Is it going out in the mountains, is it going to the beach or maybe sitting at home? Most projectors do pretty well laying down, so maybe it's just taking like a 20 minute lay down nap or a 20 minute yoga nidra meditation during the middle of the day to kind of clear out that energy and then come back for the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:Projectors, your second thing to be aware of is leaning into feeling your invitations. Because, projectors, your strategy, how you kind of get into alignment and how you make things happen, is through invitations. Wait for the invitation. So it doesn't have to be a verbal invitation of hey, do you want to go to the beach with me? It could be like hey, what are you doing today? Or oh, I really want to go to the beach. Or, um, hey, do you want to go to the beach with me? It could be like, hey, what are you doing today? Or oh, I really want to go to the beach. Or hey, what do you think about this? Instead of going and really generating a lot of the plans and generating a lot of the activities for the summer, maybe playing around with waiting to be invited, waiting for some sort of invitation, and then you get to decide if you want to accept that invitation or not. It's not waiting for the invitation and then just saying yes to everything.
Speaker 1:Again, you'll see this theme throughout all of it is navigating what a yes feels like in your body and what a no feels like in your body. What being lit up, even if you're a projector, what that yes, what that like feeling in alignment is, or being lit up feels like. And then what feeling like your energy drained feels like, which we all probably know what our energy being drained feels like. And then reflectors Reflectors are 1% of our population. Reflectors, very similar to projectors, but reflectors. Your strategy is like waiting in a lunar cycle, so reflectors, even more than projectors.
Speaker 1:Floating into where does my energy want to flow today and this summer? What is bringing me surprise and delight? Your um, your word, like your keyword is um, surprise. So what? What brings me that like giddiness, that feeling of surprise, and that's your invitation to explore within yourself and then explore like, actually explore it. So you know, maybe my sister is a, is a reflector, and one of the things that we've talked about in that like word of surprise is one way that she feels that is kind of like going somewhere without any plans, so like let's go explore this town and let's just see where the wind takes us kind of situation, um, and let's just see where I feel surprised. So that's a really fun invitation for you the to be aware of.
Speaker 1:Just like projectors, reflectors have no defined energy centers. So really being aware of how much energy you're absorbing from others, and you can even ask yourself like is this energy mine? Is this excitement or this desire? Is this mine or is it someone else's, and is this something that I really want to do? I really want to do, or is it maybe someone else's? Like excitement and do I actually kind of want to do something else that would bring me more feelings of alignment and or rest or regeneration than others. So those are our five energy types. Play around with it. Go back and listen just to your energy type in a week and see what sticks out to you a week from now, and play around with that a little bit more and really just see what comes up. It can be very fun.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have to be stressful, and let me also leave this human design conversation with. We don't need to push harder, we don't need to push ourselves and experience all the things, or so life gets to be easy. Life gets to be easy, and we're told this lie that the harder that we work, the more that we do, the more successful that we'll be, the happier that we're going to be in my 30 years of life is. It's actually the less that I do. It's the more mindfulness that I incorporate into my life. It's these small changes that I make. Outwardly, my summer might not look that different this year to other summers that I've experienced, but inwardly, the more that I check in with myself, the more that I say no to the things that are not lighting me up, the more that I slow down and really check in with is this something that I want to do? Is this something that's in alignment with me? The more connected I feel to myself, the more flow I feel and life gets to be easy.
Speaker 1:So let's add one little extra cherry on top of this conversation for females. Whether you are someone that actually menstruates or not we are. If you are female, then you go through the same four cycles a month. It just might not be actually bleeding. So whether you're like on birth control or you're in, you're like post-menstruation, your menopause, this still stands Learning your four cycles, and I will try to link another video below in that really dives into the four cycles, but I will also take this time to shamelessly plug.
Speaker 1:If you're interested in learning the four cycles, my group coaching program, sync, is all about laying the foundation of how to live in alignment with our cycle, and we go through four cycles a month as women. Just like the moon goes through four main phases in the month, just like we go through four seasons. So I talked a little bit about the summer season energy. We have these energy changes within our body every roughly a week because we have, you know, four, four weeks in a month. So, um, which that's roughly.
Speaker 1:But learning your menstrual cycle, so learning what is the energy that I feel in the follicular phase versus the ovulation phase, versus the luteal phase, versus my actual bleed. I'm going to give a few tips for each but, again, this is something that you can explore. You can listen to some of my podcasts about that. I've already talked about we can have conversations in DMs, on Instagram or again, if you're interested in really diving deep and committing to this lifestyle shift that's going to lead to more energy, feeling more connected, feeling like you are able to be sustainable, have sustainable energy. That's a superpower. That's a superpower all in itself.
Speaker 1:So let's start with our follicular phase, which is like our inner spring. So if you kind of think of the energy of spring, that's where we are in our follicular phase. Our follicular phase is right after we finish our period, right after we finish bleeding. The follicular phase is really this build of energy. So what my invitation is is to explore your dips and waves of energy throughout the summer because, just generally, we're in the summer phase of high energy, feeling more extroverted, feeling more productive and having just more like physical energy, even maybe, depending on how aligned we are in the other phases. Um, but then your, our, our energy as women is going to shift a little bit throughout the weeks. So our follicular phase is this like slow build of energy. It's kind of like you're coming out of hibernation or an animal. You know, if you think of when an animal comes out of hibernation, it's not just going to go like run an entire marathon on the first day after it's spent the whole winter sleeping, marathon on the first day after it's spent the whole winter sleeping.
Speaker 1:So what do I want to do to make sure that I'm kind of like slowing myself down a little bit, pacing, pacing myself For me if I do a really good job taking care of myself in my menstrual phase, like in the bleed, I tend to be able to have pretty consistent energy in the follicular phase. If I push through my menstrual phase, like in the bleed, I tend to be able to have pretty consistent energy in the follicular phase. If I push through my menstrual phase, I don't take time for myself, I don't rest, I don't take time to recharge my follicular phase. I feel like I'm kind of dragging. So that's a really good illustration of really settling into each of the phases. So think of pacing yourself in the spring in your follicular phase.
Speaker 1:Then we're going to get to our ovulation phase. So our ovulation phase in the summer, actual summer season, I mean it should feel good if you've taken care of yourself. The other phases. But if this is a new concept for you, maybe you don't feel like you have all this high energy or maybe you don't feel quite as extroverted or outgoing. How can you support yourself in that? The summer phase is the time night concerts, to schedule that dinner and comedy show, to schedule maybe a little bit more time hanging out with friends or family members, maybe schedule the cookout. Then, if you're able to schedule it around your ovulation phase, you're going to feel a lot more. You know, like when you schedule something and then you get to it and you're like, fuck, I don't want to go, like, hopefully that's not going to be happening in your ovulation phase.
Speaker 1:I know for me, if I have a date or if I have like an event, even with one of my friends or something while I'm ovulating, I'm like, fuck yeah, let's get dressed to the nines, let's go eat some great food, let's, you know, go listen to music and dance. But then if I'm like in my menstrual phase, when I have plans like that, I'm like, are you sure we're not going to cancel? Like sitting by my phone all day waiting for them to cancel because I don't really want to go. That's an example. So ovulation phase, then we get to our luteal phase, which is this slow come down of energy. Our luteal phase is like fall. So we're kind of beginning to make the early preparations of hibernation, really, of slowing down, of maybe stepping away, stepping back. So, beginning luteal phase, maybe you still feel like you have great energy, you can still like plan the things, but end luteal phase.
Speaker 1:For me, my biggest dip of energy actually is like two or three days before I get my period. It's not actually on my period for me, other people, it's like their actual bleed is very draining for them and before they're fine. So again, explore, play around with this for yourself and kind of define what it is for you. But the three or four days before my period, ideally not scheduling much. Maybe I'm having my friend over and we're cooking dinner at home, or maybe we're ordering takeout and we're just watching a movie instead of going out to dinner and going out on the town. Maybe it's taking a really nice slow hike or getting back in nature. Maybe it is taking some time for myself and not even hanging out with other people, especially if you're still working like your full nine to five which you probably are, unless you're a teacher or a parent really making sure to plan a couple extra restorative things for you.
Speaker 1:Relaxation maybe it's scheduling a massage. Maybe it's taking a nice bath or taking some time to journal and read a book, right, like what is really bringing you more energy. It also might be a really good time to put more focus on how am I nourishing my body, because your body is really getting ready for this huge shed and so I know for me in summer, like I eat more takeout and I go out to eat more often, which is all fine and well, but maybe it's really taking that time to double check and check in with, like, how am I nourishing my body right now? How am I feeding my body and fueling my body? And do I want those warmer, more cooked foods? Do I want, like, a bone broth or what do I want? What do I need?
Speaker 1:And then we get to the menstrual phase, which is our actual bleed. If you are someone that does bleed. If you're not, you still go through this phase once again. So our menstrual phase is that inner winter. It really is that time to step back. I always use my menstrual phase as this really beautiful time to check in with, like how I'm feeling alignment wise. Am I feeling aligned in my business? Am I feeling aligned in my relationships? Am I feeling aligned, like, with the choices that I've made? It's this really good time to reflect? And and then kind of like reset, of like, what shifts do I want to make this coming month or next cycle? That's going to be more supportive for me.
Speaker 1:So, again, kind of like the late luteal phase, checking in with how am I nourishing my body? How am I nourishing my mind, body and soul. Maybe it's you know saying no. Maybe that this is the time where you're checking in with like what's a no for me? Maybe it's just an energy wise, like I'm on my period, I really don't feel like, whether you tell them that or not, I really don't feel like going out. So I'm going to say no and I'm going to stay in and watch a movie or I'm going to go for a walk by myself. So, really checking in with how am I feeling in my body?
Speaker 1:A lot of my work and it's a lot of my work that I teach other people and I work with clients, but it's because it's been a lot of my personal work is how can I be more embodied? How can I be more in my body? How can I learn the communication of my body even better? Because our bodies are always speaking to us, they just don't speak in words. Our body doesn't know how to communicate in words. Our mind communicates in words, our brain communicates in words, but how can I learn the communication of the sensations, of the energy shifts in my body, of what a yes and a no feels like in my body? How can I learn that? And that is really truly where your power lies in everything. So I just had a podcast that I mean at this time, that I'm recording. I just recorded a podcast with a guest, um, who is like a holistic health coach and she. We talked a lot about learning how our bodies feel, like learning that communication of our body, because our bodies are so wise, they're ancient. Our mind, all of this information that we're overflow over, over powered by, that's really new. But our bodies truly have the answer. And giving yourself that permission to listen and learn the communication, learn what your body is trying to tell you, because it has all the answers it truly does.
Speaker 1:So let's close with two, two breathwork exercises. This, this is how we can like, oh, shake it off. You know like I just had a really busy day, or I feel like really hot right now, um, because summer is warmer temperatures. Um, this is really this, an invitation to settle into coming back to our body, settle into checking in with how am I actually doing today? How are you really? I used to do that on Fridays. I used to post on my social media. I probably will now that we're bringing it up. But how are you really doing? And checking in with yourself how you're really doing.
Speaker 1:So first, breathwork practice is called the Satali breath. I posted this on my Instagram. If you want to go look at it, I'll repost it. The Satali breath is a nice cooling breath. So when we feel all of this like Agni, I think, is how you pronounce it Agni, I don't know how to pronounce A-G-N-I, I believe it's this like inner fire, and summer is fire energy. So how can I cool that summer energy? How can I? How can I slow down? I've been talking all about slowing down this whole podcast episode. But what if I get to sitting down and like my body and my mind won't stop running and I, like my nervous system, you know, is just kind of stuck in that overdrive? How do we get our nervous system regulated? Breathwork is one tool. There's so many tools. Breathwork is one of the most powerful tools I found.
Speaker 1:So the first breathwork exercise you're going to make your tongue into like a hot dog style, so you're going to roll your tongue. The sides of your right and the left side of your tongue are going to roll up, so it looks like a hot dog. If you're watching this video, you can always scroll over to YouTube and watch the end part of this video so you get the visual demonstrations. But if you're watching, it's going to look like this, and then all you're going to do is you're going to roll your tongue hot dog style and breathe in through your mouth, breathe in through that tongue and out through your nose. So it's going to look something like or sound if you're listening something like keep doing that as I'm talking. Okay, do it like two or three more times.
Speaker 1:What you might notice is that that breath coming in through your tongue in the hot dog style feels super cool. Whether you're outside doing this, whether you're driving, whether you're sitting at home practicing this, it feels cool. And so what I want you to imagine, to take it one step deeper. As you're taking the inhale, imagine that cool air not just stopping at your tongue, going all the way down down your trachea into your lungs and allowing that cool air to permeate all the way down your abdomen, your legs, your thighs, your ankles, all the way down to your feet, and then, when you're breathing out out through the nose, it's breathing out all of that stuck, warm, stale air out through your nose and then you're going to take in another nice cooling breath all the way down to your toes, filling the belly completely up, deep, deep breath and then breathing out through your nose and notice, even right now, like stop breathing, allow your body to come into this neutral position and just notice how you feel.
Speaker 1:I always notice different sensations on my tongue. I always feel different in my belly because I practiced a deep belly breath. Maybe practicing this 10, 15, 15, 20 breaths, maybe you feel a little bit calmer, you feel a little bit more grounded. If you're breathing all the way down into your feet, see if you can perceive the bottoms of your feet and feel the entirety of your foot, your toes, the top of your foot, the ankle, the heel, the instep. Just notice what you notice and practice that whenever you feel, even if you're driving and you're like on a long road trip, right, practice a little of the satali breath. So that is your breathwork practice today.
Speaker 1:I will be sharing more breathwork practices throughout the summer on my Instagram, so if you don't already follow me, make sure that you follow me. It's at underscore. Journey to well, somatic exercises to get us back into the body, a really great kind of connecting circling back to our human design and the cycle portion of the podcast. Another really great practice is to do a little breath work in the beginning of your like check-in session with yourself. Do some breath work, ground yourself, and then maybe ask yourself do I want to go to the beach today? Do I want to do these plans, you know, with this person later, later in the evening, beginning to play around with what is bringing you energy, what's not bringing you energy, when you're coming from that grounded place and you're coming from that more centered place rather than just like, oh, do I want to do this while you're in like chaotic nervous system overdrive. Regulate your nervous system down, regulate it ground. Maybe even get outside, put your bare feet on the earth.
Speaker 1:There's an idea and then ask yourself these, these questions of what lights me up, what's bringing me energy, what do I need to say no to? What do I want my summer to look like? How cool would it be to go through summer and come to the end and say it was pretty much exactly what I wanted. It was pretty much exactly what I wanted it to look like. I felt really connected, I felt really aligned. I really loved this summer. That's what I want for you and that's what you'll get. Keep coming back to this episode. I will talk to you soon, my friend, make sure we stay connected on Instagram. Reach out and say hello, I'll see you soon. Be well.