Movement for Emotional & Sensory Regulation with Evgeniia of At Nourished Motherhood: Part 1

You know all the "shoulds" of MOVING your body, but how does it help with your EMOTIONAL regulation? In PART 1, Whitney & Evgeniia get personal and dive deep into:

• how movement has helped in Evgeniia's journey & learning to move through emotions with her son, overcoming past difficulties
• what gets in the way so that we can face it head on
• why all-or-nothing is holding you back
• how movement models ultimate self-compassion for your child!
• how you can include movement in your daily routine (even in the bathroom!)

Evgeniia is a homeschool mom and coach who supports other homeschool moms in mindset shifts and pro-metabolic lifestyles, including intentional movement and holistic nutrition. Think holistic ways to beat burnout and encourage you on your lifelong health journey. She coaches mom, offers courses, recipes, challenges and so many resources. 

You can find her online @at.nourished.motherhood and her resources at www.atnourishedmotherhood.com

Access the blog for this episode here for more tips and encouragement: Mindsets for Movement.

Join Evgeniia and Whitney on IG for a LIVE chat regarding movement in our busy mom lives-- Friday March 7th-- Submit your questions by hitting "send me a note" here in the podcast shownotes.

This podcast is not meant as medical advice or a substitute for any medical advice. Please contact your health professional with any mental health or physical health questions or concerns.

Transcript

 Welcome back to the Sensational Moms Podcast.  If you know the benefits of movement, but you have a hard time actually getting around to it,  or maybe you'd want to understand better how movement can help you beyond just your physical health,  then this two part series is especially for you.  Movement is so helpful for us when we feel overwhelmed and overstimulated. 

Not only does it help us in that moment of stress,  But regular intentional movement also keeps us from getting to that point of overwhelm and overstimulation quite as easily.  In science speak, we would call this expanding your window of tolerance.  Our sense of movement and proprioception are most often the senses that can help us feel grounded and in control. 

Those senses are usually under stimulated,  so if we know this, then why don't we just move more often?  And how can we fit intentional movement into the margins of our busy time as moms?  So,  with these questions in mind, I reached out to Evgenia at At Nourished Motherhood.  The first time I found Evgeniia's content on Instagram, a friend had shared her kitchen workout routine, and I thought, this is perfect. 

I talk with moms all the time about fitting in movement during our everyday activities. And there she was. She was modeling just that. So, I was thrilled when I reached out to her and she agreed to be a guest on the podcast.  We had a delightful time talking with each other about not just the physical benefits of movement, but the emotional, social, and psychological benefits, and how they have looked in her own life. 

In our time together, she was so transparent about her own journey and her transparency.  That, coupled with her honesty about daily struggles,  Our time was just very helpful for me personally. So I'm excited to be sharing this with you. I hope that you can find inspiration and motivation on your own journey. 

So I'm pleased to bring you this two part series. In the first part today, we will dive deep into using movement as a tool to deal with overwhelm.  We'll talk about mindset shifts  that are key.  And we'll also start talking about common barriers to actually moving our bodies with intention. 

Today, I am so excited to have Evgeniia Arasim, who is a homeschooling mama and holistic health coach, dedicated to helping fellow homeschool moms overcome burnout through movement. nourishing food, and mindset work.  Originally from Russia, she grew up in a competitive school and sports environment, but she chose a different path for her own child, one filled with wild adventures, child led learning, and a slow, intentional lifestyle. 

Now living in Toronto with her husband and son, Virginia embraces a multilingual homeschool journey. Incorporating English, Polish, and Russian into their daily learning, making education both enriching and fun.  After becoming a mother, she shifted her focus from traditional fitness to holistic health, recognizing that true well being goes beyond just movement. 

With a deep understanding of metabolism, movement, and sustainable wellness, she now empowers homeschooling moms to nourish their bodies, regain their energy, and thrive in both motherhood and homeschooling.  So welcome today, Evgeniia.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me.  The reason that I thought you would be a perfect fit for my audience is we all the time are talking about movement and how having Regular intentional movement during our days can really help us tackle the overwhelm, the stress, and the burnout that can come from motherhood.

And then you couple that with being home all day with our children, no matter how much we love them. And it can just be a lot, but then we hear that we need to do one more thing. And  it can be hard to even get started.  We can struggle with having an all or nothing mindset.  So when we can't hit play on a 30 minute episode of an exercise routine and fit that into our lives, we think, well, this isn't going to be possible for us.

So you mentioned mindset and how that is so important for knowing our why when we hit those difficult times. So. First, would you mind sharing a little bit more about your why with homeschooling?  Yes, absolutely. My why with homeschooling is that because I wanted to stay with my son. And,  um,  not that I wanted to just be at home, but I wanted to make sure that I'm present in his life.

However, when we started homeschooling,  I didn't know this particularly. When we started  The reasons were that I didn't want to trust the government because of education here in Canada and in the U. S. as well. It's not what it was 20 years ago. Um, I didn't want to wake up at 6 a. m. and have this stressful morning of getting up, uh, getting everything ready, getting the child up.

The kids are obviously tired in the morning. There is more drama, but there is time. You have to be. by at some point, either by the bus or school. And even still, my son is almost six. I cannot imagine like when on the days when we have to go somewhere, for example, skiing for the full day, this homeschool group.

It's a struggle. Like, we have to discuss a plan, write down a plan with my husband, how we're gonna make it work. And everything should be ready. And breakfast is on the go in the car to make it less, um, time at home and more time to sleep for my son, for example. Right. And I cannot imagine doing this every day.

For me, it's just not possible. I didn't want to be away for so many hours and, um, uh, not knowing what my son is doing. And even recently we discussed, we were discussing with my husband when we were working together that, um, we see, we live next to nine schools. And we constantly and we both work from home.

So we constantly see the kids outside when they play. Um,  and yes, the right dolls with them supervising them.  But I don't like that. The thing that the kids are basically by themselves.  Especially young kids. I understand older kids can handle this and we should let them go and they should be independent, but young kids. 

So, for me, um, I didn't want this, right? And we can recreate somewhat, uh, school environment at home if we want to.  We can recreate socializing and everything what school gives, like positive sides of school, right? There is also positive. I don't want to say. And I'm so grateful that we were able to create the life that allows us to do this and be with our son.

You mentioned some about how your reason has changed. You know, you, you learn new things and that's so important for us to be able to kind of step back and  keep tabs on what's going on, you know, because things do change as. We are homeschooling longer as our kids change, as we change and as our needs change and our values change.

So that is so important. In fact, one of the reasons that you mentioned wanting to homeschool was my number one reason for wanting to homeschool. And when I say, when I say that people are shocked because it's so basic. I have four kids that are. Uh, five and a half years total. So they're very close in age.

And I looked at the schedule of getting my kindergartner to school, getting my preschooler to preschool and having a newborn in the car and the amount of time that we were going to spend in the car, getting from one place to the other, the interrupted naps and all of the things, just like you said, spending half the morning, getting ready to go somewhere and then coming home and having homework, it was just too much.

So it was just very, you know, pragmatic, I guess, wanting to just to realize that that didn't fit with my values that if I wanted to spend time with my kids, I would rather that time not be when my children are absolutely exhausted. And I am too, from getting and going and. All of that.  So and I think  most of the moms if they would given would be given an option to choose and to have somewhat income to leave a normal lifestyle.

Most of the moms would choose to stay at home with their kids and to not do this every morning. Yes, there is good options like co ops and stuff, but it is stressful and I think that most of the moms would make the choice to homeschool  if they have an option.  So as you mentioned, it is stressful, and I think that there's stress that comes with both of those, and it's easy as homeschool moms to  caught up in the overwhelming stress of Homeschooling sometimes and dealing with having multiple nervous systems under one roof and all of that, but then we forget that there's two sides to that coin and there's not going to be a quick fix, right?

Like, well, on a hard day, we think I'm just going to enroll my kids in school and that'll make things easier. Well, it'll just be a different kind of hard, right? So I think movement, um, and being mindful of incorporating that into our lives as a way of managing stress is really important. To be able to make this lifestyle sustainable in, in the long run and not get totally burned out.

Right.  100%. And we forget often forgot forgotten because of the mindset. Yes. We are in.  So talk with me a bit about the benefits of staying active for moms who deal with feeling overwhelmed and. Reactive and kind of snappy with our kids and and if you wouldn't mind also, you could share how you have seen these benefits in your own life as well. 

Yes, absolutely. So,  uh, when my son was young, still know the kind of daycare age and I was at home with him because of pandemic. And this is the positive side of pandemic that changed everything for so many, and especially for me.  I was  reactive, mom. I,  as I said, I grew up in Russia. There was, um, and I'm not gonna be pretending or putting myself into victimhood shoes or into victim shoes, but  Definitely, there was some traumas, right?

Like, most of us could find some traumas in our lives, but specifically there, um, no one was accepting emotions. Emotional intelligence was not the same when I was growing up. It's only now, right now, there. Um,  As a child, you were just shut down. School system was very strict. Class was very stressful since young age.

And, uh, you know, all the exams in Russia are done either by writing. Um, and no, it's not a test, like essay kind of things. Or, um. It's, um, when you sit down in front of the professor or teacher and you talk  and sometimes it's 100 questions and they can ask you anything. So it's very, very stressful. When I came to Canada, it's just a little bit  story.

When I came to Canada and  I went to college. Uh, people were stressing out about tests,  uh, and I'm like, why are you guys stressing out? Like you have three hours to sit down by yourself on a desk with a piece of paper, and you can't even have a pen pencil, and you can remove the question. Like in rush, it's only pen you have to cross so everyone will see your mistakes, right?

And you don't even have to talk. Why are you stressing out? Okay, if you know, you know, if you don't know, you don't know, and you just move on. And I was like shocked about this. Well, uh, I mean,  being in Russia and going through this, it prepared me for many things, uh, in life in general. Like I'm most likely I will be stressed, but I'm not going to be afraid of things.

Right. So, uh, talking back about reactive side, my son was given to me for a reason. And I know the reason is that. He needed to change my, um, emotional.  side of me.  He needed to show me how to accept emotions, how to, um, be okay with showing love and kindness and compassion and all the, you know, good things, how to be acceptable of sadness and how to manage anger and how to be okay with mistakes and how to stop being all or nothing or perfectionist.

That is how I was before. And when he was born, first years were of course hard and you know I could  easily like snap down on him when he was two or one and a half and then I was I was looking at myself and I was in shock that they actually can scream like this to my own child, who's a baby still. And I, of course, as all the moms, I felt lots of guilt and, uh, lots of different things.

And I think that, uh, if you born a woman and you have kids, guilt just, it's like, it's your future. You have guilt. You can't remove guilt. Even if you don't feel guilt in one department, you'll feel guilt in something else. Right. And we just need to find the tools, how to help us to manage our anger, to accept emotions of our kids, to accept our own emotions and to be like, okay, I'm tired today.

I need to breathe. I need to move. I need to ask for help because that's what moms don't do because we think that we have to do everything by ourselves.  And  movement is one of the tools. That would be helpful in all of these things. And as I said, after every workout, I was a better mom,  right? But at that time, I didn't work on the mindset yet. 

So the workouts were happening. They were very long. That was feeling better after, but in overall picture, I didn't feel  better like all the time, just because the mindset about many different things like perfection is limiting beliefs and all or nothing was not changed yet, but movement was a great tool and for moms in general. 

Movement is improving your metabolism. Movement is improving your mood. It's improving your blood sugar. It's improving your, the way, how you feel the way, how much energy you make.  I always explain to my husband who doesn't want to work out and I have to remind him about it when he says, Oh, I'm so tired.

And I say, well, you're tired because you didn't move today. More we move. It's the same as, um, uh, hybrid engine in cars. Then we started and longer we go, the battery charges itself. So it's the same thing. More we move intentionally. I'm not saying running marathon every day because obviously our bodies are not built for this kind of activities on a consistent daily basis.

But intentional movement, moving our joints, moving our ligaments and tendons, you know, doing something to our shoulders because we carrying stress there all the time. Doing some stretches, doing some foam rolling, doing Pilates workout or strength workout or getting outside and just looking at the sun and walking. 

All of the movements have its, uh, have the place in our life and we can find the time to do this because I know the time is the one obstacle we as moms having because movement doesn't have to be 30 minutes or 40 minutes or one hour. We have this imaginary,  Picture of what the movement should be or what the workout should be.

And when it doesn't happen,  first we feel guilt, of course, because we know working out is good. Uh, and second, we just more put ourselves into the phase when we feel like, okay, didn't happen. Why even to try, or I'm such a loser. It's okay. You know, I'm just, I guess I'm going to stay forever in this kind of, uh, body mentality, uh, when I don't have movement and I'm overwhelmed and burned out.

So how do you get, how do you work on that mindset piece when we have that sort of all or nothing mentality toward movement?  Yes. Uh, how do I work with myself or with my clients? Because it's different. I think every single person, every single mom is unique. Her family situation is unique. Her number of kids is different from other moms.

Um, they do different homeschool, uh, styles. Uh, sometimes husbands work, sometimes they don't, sometimes they have help or family, sometimes they don't. So it will be unique to everyone. However, I just want to remind everyone that starting with one to two minutes a day, And making it in your head that it's easy, like just  pressuring yourself to believe that movement is easy.

Movement can be one minute. One minute of movement is the same movement as 30 minutes of movement. Yes, 30 minutes will give you different benefits. One minute will still give you benefits.  And you can start with one little routine. That will be so beneficial for you that eventually when you can stick to one or two, three, five minutes of a workout or mobility movement or stretching movement, then  when it's your routine, you can step to the next level and increase it or add something else and do it for 10 minutes  and always count anything as a win. 

In every single situation when we failed, there is always one learning opportunity and two, there is always a win and win most likely is that what you learn today. For example, okay, um, I planned to do my workout today, but it didn't happen. Why didn't happen? Well, I just planned to do it today, but today.

Is almost 12 hours and I was procrastinating into the point when there was too late. The kids were screaming. So maybe next day I can try to find the time in my morning. I can try to Give it all to my kids for 30 minutes or for one hour two hours that they actually will be like, okay Just give us 10 minutes break from you and you're like, yeah, that's perfect That's my time to work out when they can handle themselves for 10 minutes or five minutes sometimes Uh when my son was young I was putting him in the bathtub and I will I was literally working out using the toilet.

Like I would do step ups on the toilet. I would do some pushups on the sink. I would do something on the floor and you know, he can, he's supervised by me. I'm there, right?  So it's a win win. He doesn't feel like he's alone. I am also there so I can see if he's, you know, if in case he starts drowning, I'm there to help you.

Um, and I worked out and it's, it worked perfectly. So for every single mom, that would be slightly different. However, what will be all the same for every single mom is that we have to shift this mindset and start with a small step. And the good example is How we teaching our kids to read? I always give this example or do math. 

We don't give our kids, uh, some fraction from grade nine when they're four years old. We start slow and we are okay with them to do this. We don't call them losers. We don't say, why don't you do this? But then we treat ourselves absolutely different. And it's actually really great for kids to see that we treat ourselves with compassion and kindness.

And we treat them the same way. So they will know that this is the standard of doing life instead of treating them one way, treating ourselves another way. And it's like, you know, young kids, especially when they seem connected to us, they can read us without, uh, really. Absolutely. Hearing anything. Yes, yes.

And it's, it's kind of controversial in their mind. Okay, she's so nice to me, but she's actually doing nothing for her. How come? Right? And, you know, if you have girls particularly, and the girls are slightly older, this is This is amazing. Like my clients with their daughters,  the daughters are learning with them how to be compassionate and kind and how to live a true healthy lifestyle.

When you don't kick your butt every day to the point when you are so exhausted that you cannot move next day, but you  just use compassion as a tool and you build a workout routine or. You know, house routine, but it actually serves the whole family. And not just because some influencer on internet said that this is good.

Yeah. Virginia. I love how you said that, how we're treating ourselves.  We're modeling for our children, how they should treat themselves as well. I, I speak a lot with moms about that emotional regulation piece that you're talking about the beginning that was hard, that we are speaking to ourselves, maybe not aloud, but internally in a way that we would never speak to our best friend or our child on a good day.

And yet we speak to ourself in that tone or with those negative words. So. It is really important to be mindful of that internal monologue and what we're modeling because you're right. It is, it is very similar. The habits and the lifestyle that we're living are the best curriculum that we could have for our child.

Um, and  I think we overcomplicate things sometimes and if we would spend half of that effort on ourselves, then it would go much further for our children. So thanks for connecting those dots. And what a story you have, I mean, uh,  what a huge learning curve from your younger life to realizing your areas of personal growth for emotional regulation.

Once you had a child, that is a steep learning curve.  I, I, um, it sounds like movement and being intentional about that has been an important part of figuring out how to deal with those experiences. Yes, so thank you for sharing that with us. So we've touched a little bit on this already.  Common roadblocks or barriers that you see get in the way of homeschool moms staying active.

So that sort of all or nothing mentality is one time. You've mentioned some of that. So I, what I hear you saying is that. It looks different for every mom because we have different resources or supports available to us as far as how we're going to fit that in. I know that when my children were younger, um, I personally could not stand trying to do a workout with My kids kind of crawling all over me or needing something because I'm, you know, like I can hardly breathe and it takes all I can do not to lash out in anger when you come up and want to climb on my back because I'm in a plank position, you know, so I, you know, for some moms that works, you know, but for me it didn't.

So I had to figure out a way to. Get intentional movement where I wouldn't be interrupted. And now it's easier that my children are older. My youngest is six and a half, and  I actually can leave the room for, for a little while and established and boundaries and what I'm going to be back and what I need.

So, yeah, it, it's going to look different at different phases of our life and our kids age and. The support said you've got to take all of that into consideration and you said,  you know, taking stock of what's working and what isn't and not to consider that a failure. Just a learning experience. Okay. Well, what, what got in the way of me getting to that today?

And what can I change to maybe lessen, make that barrier a little bit smaller? So are there any other barriers that you can think of?  Yeah, of course it, uh, probably go on and on. Could you,  as, um, our human mind can create really any barriers, I think, and the real ones that are not created, it's the season or geography, depending where you live.

Someone like me who lives in Canada and it's. It's, uh, six or five months of cold right now. Um, it's harder to move and to rely on walks.  For example, for some, if someone doesn't like winter, I love winter when it's snowing, I'm the first one to go. I'm just like, okay, just, just, uh, put some pants and warm clothes and that's it.

I'm ready to go. But some, they don't like this weather. So it's okay. Some of my clients literally, they live in Ohio and it's very cold there, like the same as here. So we discussed and finally that mom, she's doing.  10 minutes walk at home and I'm asking her, she says, I'm just setting up timer and walk back and forth.

And I am asking her, uh, how are you? Are they laughing? And they're like, no, they're not anymore. Or. But right now, so other barriers is, uh, as we said, time, it's all or nothing. It's finances. You know, sometimes we're so overwhelmed that we don't understand that most of the health routines are free. You can do them at home by yourself, right?

And it's hard to commit to something because of mindset, but it is available and possible.  number of kids, right? Some moms cannot, uh, realistically  have more time and they maybe have five to 10 minutes. Um, and then we have to find the time. There is 24 hours available for every single person on this planet.

And, um, yes, our circumstances will be different, but we should never give up.  Um, other obstacles would be if you have, for example, one child like me, right? It's sometimes I think,  why didn't I have three kids earlier and it would be hard. And I know why I knew why, because I would not be able with my level of emotional intelligence. 

I would not be able to become who I became right now with three kids because that would, uh, put me deeper into, uh, burnout and other things. And I'm in a way grateful, but sometimes I think, well, he would have some, someone to play here. I love that you mentioned that though, because I also have a couple of friends that have one child and it's so easy for some people to assume, well, that must be easier.

Um,  it's its own level of hard. It's it's. It's a unique kind of hard.  Um, yes, yes, yes, it's, um, and older they are, I feel like it's harder because he wants more attention. And, uh, sometimes we can have the whole day, I can spend nine hours skiing and having my undivided attention with him. And then five minutes when he wants something from me, I'm not available.

And that's it. There is a drama. Yeah. Yeah.  Um, there really there are obstacles off, um, different illnesses and health, right?  Um, moms have do, uh, do have physical limitations, or at least they believe they have limited limitations. And, you know, the thing is that in what we believe, even if it's not real, or it doesn't sound real for us, it's real.

And we always have to consider this being real obstacles.  Right.  We have to have very honest conversations, of course. And sometimes it's hard in my work because I have to say things I know my clients will not like.  They don't. Because who, who does? I don't want to hear certain things sometimes too.  Um, and yes, as I said, we can really create any obstacle.

But the only Getting  out of the obstacle, we also can make an obstacle disappear almost any of them. I had, um, uh, an obstacle to movement a few years back. I had a foot injury and then I was having some autoimmune problems on top of that, that we're just making it not heal. And  I,  hard to, to do certain exercises when it hurts to, to, to stand for a long. 

Um,  But I had to be creative about how I was approaching things. And it's amazing how long, even after the foot injury was finally better, it took me so long to just get over that mental block of,  of the pain and to try, even though  I, it had healed, you know, so it's, yeah, there's. Those are, are, are real.

Yeah, there are real barriers sometimes too. But like you said, there, there are creative ways to work around those. And we do need someone in our lives that's willing to ask us those, those uncomfortable questions. And that's why it can be so beneficial to have a coach like yourself, that's willing to understand boundaries, right.

But also to kind of hold up that mirror to someone and. Have those honest conversations, because when we're working with habits that have been long established, it takes a lot to overcome those. So, if that is part of the work that you're doing with mom, so thank you for doing that. 

That's a wrap for today's episode. I'd love to have you back next time for part two, where Yevgenia and I will discuss finding motivation during hard times, as well as tips for getting back to intentional movement after a more sedentary season.  So, you can find her resources on her website at www.

youtube. com at  nourishedmotherhood. com and of course that will be in the show notes.  She has so many resources regarding movement and nutrition just waiting for you there.  She also has a six day mobility challenge like she mentioned,  which is a great way to ease back into purposeful movement this season.

So be sure to check that out. Between now and then, let's stay connected. You can find me on Instagram at sensationalmoms. Evgeniia and I will actually be having a live conversation on this topic of movement later this week. I hope you can join us live.  You can also find the recording later.  If you have questions for us before the live event, just hit the button on the podcast here to send me a message.

It'll go straight to my phone and I'll be sure to ask her for you.  Until next time, may you find connection, even in the chaos.