The One Breath Every Actor Needs | Artist & Harvard-Trained Therapist Daniella DeVarney

What if one conscious breath could begin changing your relationship with anxiety… creativity… performance… and even your life?

What if the body already knows how to heal, and we’ve simply forgotten how to listen?

And what if becoming a better actor actually begins by becoming a more regulated human being?

In this deeply nourishing episode of Thriving Artists: The Daily Joyride, Robyn Cohen sits down with one of her dearest friends, Daniella DeVarney—actor, dancer, Harvard-trained therapist, yoga teacher, breathwork facilitator, Wellness Walks founder, mother, and one of the wisest, kindest human beings you’ll ever meet.

Together they explore how breath, movement, nervous system regulation, community, creativity, and meaningful relationships help us expand our capacity for life.

Daniella shares the remarkable research behind a simple breath practice shown to improve sleep, reduce anxiety and stress, and increase resilience after only a few days of practice.

But this conversation goes far beyond breathing.

It’s about becoming more fully alive.

Whether you’re an actor, artist, parent, entrepreneur, or simply someone longing for a little more ease, joy, and wholeness, this episode is an invitation to come home to yourself.

In this episode…

• How breathwork changes the nervous system

• Why actors need regulation before performance

• The surprising Harvard research on breath and resilience

• Moving from debilitating shyness to a creative life

• Why relationships are one of the greatest predictors of longevity

• Walking as therapy and the origins of EMDR

• Expanding your capacity for joy, creativity, and life

• Following intuition without abandoning practicality

• The healing power of community

• What thriving really looks like

Connect with Daniella DeVarney

Instagram:

@DaniellaDeVarney

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Every week we explore best acting practices, creative mindset, healing from setbacks, high performance tools, finding joy in the journey, and the remarkable adventure of becoming more fully ourselves.

Time Stamps:

00:00 Welcome & Acting Community

02:10 Meet Daniella DeVarney

09:40 Growing Beyond Shyness

15:20 The Breath Study That Changed Everything

22:00 Better Sleep Through Breath

28:00 Relationships, Community & Longevity

34:30 Purpose Beyond Achievement

40:05 Wellness Walks & EMDR

44:00 A Personal Healing Story

49:00 Breath, Performance & Expanding Capacity

56:00 Intuition, Creativity & Trust

1:03:00 Connect with Daniella

1:08:00 Robyn’s Closing Reflections

Come ride. Let’s thrive. Together. ✨

Robyn Cohen

Thriving Artists: The Daily Joyride

Transcript

Robyn Cohen (2) 0:00

Hello there. And welcome back to Thriving Artists, the Daily Joy Ride. It's so good to be with you again this springtime And WOW! Are we springing forth? We've just had the most amazing actors, Scene Night, a showcase where actors got to feature work that they have been drumming up in class, with some of the greatest, plays and scenes. Speeches ever. And the students just lit it up for a community in Los Angeles that was so excited by their beautiful, powerful, inspired, and inspiring work. It was such a joy. we're getting ready to go back into the theater for in-person acting classes this July and also starting Monday, June the eighth. We're gonna enjoy a series of online acting classes so wherever you are in the world, you are welcome to join us See what this acting craft is all about. see what it's like to meet up with a group of actor, artist, citizens that are just on fire in this craft, that actually love acting and that are there to have a shared human ex. Experience. It's such a thing of beauty. so DM me on Instagram. You can find me @Robyncohenactingstudio you can also email me. This is all in the show notes at Robyn@cohenactingstudio.com whatever it is that you're interested in exploring, whether that's one-on-one coaching, it's in a group community environment, whether that's to audit, just to soak it in taste the honey You can see how actors actually train and develop themselves in this beautiful craft. So get in touch. I am here for it. I am here for you, and I will be over the moon to connect so we can get this creative party started. speaking of celebrations, I am so excited to get into this conversation with one of my dearest friends, Daniella Devarnay, an actor, artist, therapist, breathwork specialist and yogi who is really really on the cutting edge of helping human beings from all walks of life to expand their capacity to stand in the power of their presence with agency, ease and breath. She's the absolute best. So Let's go!

Robyn Cohen 2:05

Well, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Daily Joyride Podcast. I am your host, Robyn Cohen, and I'm here today to introduce literally like one of my favorite people on the entire planet Earth. And it's been that way, since I met you, Daniella Devarney, lo those 25 years ago, quarter of a century ago. I'm going to share with y'all out there who haven't had the privilege and joy to meet Daniella yet. a little bit about her. Aside from her being my number one superstar goddess of light and love, Daniella Devarney is a seasoned educator and holistic therapist with over 20 years of experience, specializing in teaching, Leading retreats and practicing lifestyle medicine. She brings a diverse skillset, including expertise in yoga, breath work, SSP music therapy, lifestyle coaching, photography, and doula services. Daniella has been featured twice. in USA Today for her significant contributions to training and rehabilitating professional athletes through therapeutic yoga and breath work. As a polyvagal informed practitioner, she operates a private practice called Wellness Walks, where she blends her knowledge in mental health, music, neuroscience, exercise, and therapy and coaching to offer comprehensive therapeutic services. Educated at UCLA and Harvard, she recently finished her second year as a teaching fellow for a music psychology course through Harvard Extension School. Ultimately, her goal is to continue research that bridges the gap between different fields of psychology and expands the understanding of somatic interventions, group therapies, and their potential to accelerate healing. So fasten your seatbelts, y'all, because we're gonna delve into Daniella's remarkable journey from her early days in the arts. We met at Playhouse West to her groundbreaking contributions in wellness and psychology. We're going to explore her unique insights on the power of breath, movement and mindfulness and uncover the transformative impact that she has had on countless lives and continues to have up until this very moment. This does promise to be one of the most inspiring and enlightening podcasts ever. So here we go. We're going to dive in where we're at, which when we started was, a total dysregulated state when the sound would not operate after four shutdowns and four restarts of the computer. I could not hear so Daniella Devarney, let's hear you. Welcome to the Daily Joyride.

Daniela 4:57

Oh, thank you, Robyn. I'm so happy to be here with you. I'm so happy to see your face. It brings me so much joy, as always. I miss you so much. Thank you for having me. When do I get to have another sleepover? I

Robyn Cohen 5:09

know! You know how I feel about the cats, but you know, we can still make it work. I to see if he was going to make an appearance. We'll just start with that briefly. This is how magical Daniella is. Okay, check this out. Daniella is allergic to cats. And we would call it like, it's a real allergy from what you've shared with me in the past. That there have been times when it can be more like something scary, full on anaphylaxis, that kind of throat closure, it can be something that is really terrifying. So, we were out in Hollywood doing something arts and crafts related, likely, and Daniella was going to spend the night. And, I hadn't, I don't know that I had talked about Joffy, Joffy Rooster. And so we're literally, it's like one in the morning, and it's time to like get our stuff together and just like go to sleep. We've had an exhaustive and wonderful evening, and I'm opening up my door, this was when I was living in Studio City. And I say, oh, by the way, I have a cat. I didn't tell you I have a cat. Are you okay with cats? She stops in her tracks and she says, well, and she has this lovely smile on her face. The one for those who are watching that she has on her face now. And she's like, actually, I'm really allergic to cats. And I was like, oh my gosh, My jaw was on the floor. I panicked, but Daniella, who is an expert in how to live, she just smiled and she's like, but you know what? Let's just, I think I'll be okay. I mean, this is a woman that has had severe, like could be hospitalized for this kind of thing. And she's like, well, let's just see what happens. So we make our way. into the living room, and we're getting ready for bed, and she's in the bathroom, and there's the cat, and she's just sort of smiling in his direction, he's smiling in her direction. Long story short, for the first time ever in my experience of being alive and knowing people that have, like my partner, severe cat allergies, Daniella Devarnay spent the night in my house. slept the entire night without so much as a sniffle with regards to the cat being there. Like, it was almost as if she had this, magnetic field of protection. Where even though there was cat hair all over the bed that she slept in, all over everything, it literally had absolutely no impact on your allergies or anything else. And if that just doesn't show you the power of this woman's like decision, she's just like, I think it's going to be fine. And when she made that decision, In my, this is the way it occurred for me, Daniella, because I was gobsmacked by that, and it's never happened since, like, people are allergic to cats, and when they're with Joffy, they're gonna be allergic, right? but it was this remarkable thing when I would think about this, post facto, I'd be like, Isn't that incredible that this wonder woman I think of you as someone that's just so connected and in alignment and always just like resonating with the fullness of you and the wholeness of you. And I'm like, she just made a decision and that cut off the possibility of her having an allergic reaction to this cat that she would normally have some kind of reaction to. And so I think about that and I'm like, What else do I need to just make a decision about that just rules out the possibility of anything else that's not going to be working toward my good. So, anyway, that was the way I reframed that situation, and my apologies, like, now, since that time, I do, when people are coming over, I do now, since that time, let them know. That Joffy is a cat that Lives with me. But I also do let them know, Daniella, that for some reason he didn't

Daniela 8:47

make one of my best friends in the world. It didn't affect you. Yes, he might have less pheromones. there's so many factors, but I'm going to choose to go with your reframing. It was a a choice I made in my mind and my body and my heart and my soul and my spirit. And that's the way it was. Daniella, I was not gonna, not sleepover. Yeah. I was not gonna not have my sleepover with you. Yeah. Yeah. That wasn't an question. Joffy was not gonna get in the way, so. Right. We had a good time.

Robyn Cohen 9:17

And I love that she calls him by his original name, it was Jeff. I changed it to Joffrey after the Joffrey Ballet Company, which is a phenomenal dance company But a lot of people out there don't necessarily know what the Joffrey Dance Company is, but because Daniella has a background in dance and major dance. Hello, Alvin Ailey. American dance theater. it's trained and studied with the top, dance companies in the entire world. she knew who the Joffrey Ballet was, so she still calls them Joffrey, but for everyone else, it's Joffey or Joffey Beans or Joffey Rooster. okay, Daniella, we gotta take it back. Where should we begin? I think we have to go back. I'll go way back.

Daniela 9:56

I think we got to go back. pre when we met? Yes.

Robyn Cohen 9:59

yeah, Because it's so vast and your experience and trajectory is so singular from being an actor to being a practitioner to going back to school and Harvard and now teaching there and the whole thing. Take us back. How did you get to where you got to? It's all

Daniela 10:15

connected. Everything is connected. Yes. But first of all, I'd like to say before acting, dancing, well, not before dancing, but I think like a lot of performers, I was extremely shy, debilitatingly so. Like I couldn't even, I remember just in middle school, high school, go to a party without just full on anxiety or hiding in the bathroom or something. So dance for me was where it began, gymnastics and then dance was where I really felt the most express catharsis. Like I just felt my most myself, just dancing, music, dance, movement. so that always, as I look back in retrospect, that was definitely my happy place where I felt most myself. Definitely not in parties with people. So the first acting class I ever took. Before Playhouse, before UCLA, I was with a man named Brett Dunham, and it was not to become an actor, it was because I wanted so badly to be able to be in my body and speak and be part of the world in this different way.

Robyn Cohen 11:20

I

Daniela 11:20

wanted to not be so shy and I wanted to be expressive and I wanted the piece inside of me that felt like it was there that couldn't come out to just be able to come out. So that was, it's always been all these modalities, the healing, the, art have always been, I think, a healing way for me and expression. And, I think it is for most, a lot of performers, for sure. so that dance and, I did arts and cultures at UCLA. I started yoga even before that. Yoga with Shiva Ray at UCLA. This is the late nineties. And, that's also when I began at Playhouse West simultaneously and met all of you, which were my true, like, Best friends in that college era. so lucky to meet you. I know, I'm so lucky. I feel the same. so, yeah, and with the dance. You know, I just was at this yoga music festival in Mexico. I was getting to teach some breath there. It was very exhilarating. But I haven't gotten into my practice for so long, like my actual practice for myself. I teach every week. I'm online every day teaching, but having my own practice without all my life responsibilities and I went deep into a few yoga. Practices for hours at a time, which I haven't had the opportunity to do for so long and tears were just like flowing out. I couldn't decide if they were grief or happiness or sadness. It was all of it together. It was nothing specifically that I was like grieving, but the tears were just flowing and I remembered again, why I got back, why I even began this because there's this amazing idea in the therapy. somatic trauma world that like you don't need to remember your pain in order to heal it. You don't have to go back there and re trigger it all and talk about like, you know, exactly what happened to get past it. But in movement and in these somatic practices, in acting too, in music, in acting, in dance, there is this embodied way of healing. And it was such a wonderful reminder this just this past weekend, like, Oh, I don't even know what I'm healing, but something is happening right now. And this is what we always need to be engaged in some kind of art form, which I use with all of my clients. I'm asking them, how are you being creative and how are we expressing yourself through your body? and it's definitely one of the pillars that I lean into, um, with people that I work with. So, like I said, it's all connected. It started way back then, but I always knew from my first yoga teacher training in the year 2000 because it was so healing for me. And, in a way I couldn't even articulate that. I like, this is it. And this is going to be whatever other job I have. I am going to also be teaching this for the rest of my life. and it's always been the foundation, for me, my own foundation, yoga, breath, movement. And from there, everything else, comes along I mean, when I say it's all connected, it's like I had a daughter. She had a few issues when she was like two years old. Somatic processing disorder, you can't really take like a two year old to talk therapy. So when she got into occupational therapy, which are these incredible lifesavers of healers, and I watched what they were doing with the body. It's getting back into the somatic psychology that I'm working with now and how it all kind of started. But, you know, they're making a three year old, two and three year old doing these movements with their body. Is this to create

Robyn Cohen 14:25

proprioception? For her proprioception? Yes, creates

Daniela 14:29

feedback into the brain. Where maybe it necessarily like wasn't, like she, for example, she didn't really walk I mean, she didn't really crawl that much. She started walking early at like nine months. It's so important for a baby to crawl because of the cross body, you know, things that are happening, bilateral stimulation. Yeah. and I would love to talk about that EMDR stuff too. Yeah, that's why I do wellness walking. so, you know, I'm watching this and then watching her heal in a matter of like months, and maybe a year or so with a bunch of different modalities to but just a pure example of how working with the body because our mind and body are connected, working with our bodies can heal the mind. you know, the mind can't heal the mind by itself. You can't get out of your own head to heal your own big thought processes is my opinion. The body, the body has to be involved, which is why my emphasis is somatic psychology in a way of like, we have to keep our body involved in healing our mental state as well.

Robyn Cohen 15:26

And in your studies at Harvard, I know that you were. Inviting people to join a study about the breath and breath work. I'm curious, what that study was about and if there are any results from that or what you, what you discovered about that.

Daniela 15:42

Well, breath is definitely the first thing we can use. God given, it's our gift. We can use our breath to change our state. It's the fastest thing we can use. It's our best, most important tool. And, The research has already been done we know that breathing practices can, benefit our mental health as far as decreasing anxiety and depression, you know, enhancing resilience. So that work has definitely already been done in this scientific community. and there's tons of research out right now. When I started This study, which is like two and a half years ago, and the proposal itself, which was a year before that, with the IRB, like three years ago, There was still a lot, but now it's just saturated, which is awesome. The market, I mean, the science breath world, but it, and the

Robyn Cohen 16:28

market,

Daniela 16:28

Yeah, it is, but really people

Robyn Cohen 16:30

are talking about it, but you're talking about it on such a, high level that I think most people don't have your field of experience, and the way you do it, your methodology and what you bring to it, I'd love to hear more about that and what you're finding. I

Daniela 16:42

mean. We could study forever because it's so much behavior analysis behind our breath patterns, which is like has to do with our oceans of history, personal history, you know, like my physiology is based on my breath patterns, which is based on my personal history. So we are all different, which is why everything is so prescriptive, but generally speaking, most humans take like 20 breaths per minute, and we should be taking about 10 per minute or less, and we are overbreathing and overbreathing disrupts our chemistry, which brings us into, more of a hypervigilant state, which is anxiety, irritability, and all these things. That's why people, you know, slow, deep breathing will calm you down. I mean, it does calm us down, but let me go back to the study.

Robyn Cohen 17:24

Yes.

Daniela 17:24

I wanted to see what were some minimum effective doses, knowing that we already know this breathwork works like slow, deep breathing. Which is like, six to 10 breaths per minute. Can we think of a protocol? What's the shortest protocol that we could find that works that would significantly improve people's health as far as sleep, anxiety, depression, resilience, just overall wellbeing. so I put together a protocol which increased. Into extended exhalations. so it was five days, 20 minutes per day. I had two different groups. I originally started with like 300 people around the world. The two different groups were a group of 30 in person reading this protocol 20 minutes a day with me guiding them. And then I recorded that protocol and sent it that night to all the people doing it around the world solo on their own. so it was 20 minutes a day for five days. they did some, scoring

Robyn Cohen 18:19

themselves beforehand. Like an inventory about how they were feeling beforehand? Inventory.

Daniela 18:23

we use standardized measurements. to see what the resilience was that where they started their baseline of resilience, anxiety, depression, standardized measurements that are used in the community that are well validated, and we did it before 24 hours before we did it 24 hours after, and then, we also did these same standardized testing 30 days later without any breath in between. So it was a pre, post, and then 30 days post. It's amazing. It was really successful because it just showed how powerful, 20 minutes a day. We all have 20 minutes. And actually since then, there's been more studies out that says it's only five minutes, which is huge. But anyway, so we did 20 minutes a day for five days only. At the end of the five days. they had increased their, resilience, increased their quality of sleep, decreased depression, decreased, anxiety, and stress at significant levels, which is huge in science. I could report that all of these Pillars of well being were significantly increased after only five days doing 20 minutes change their sleep and also the people in the sleep scores went from a poor category sleep into a normal category sleep after just five days

Robyn Cohen 19:34

What's a four versus a normal? like the

Daniela 19:36

number? where they scored themselves beforehand was in a poor category. Okay, like universally speaking, all the people who took this standardized measurement test were in a poor category of not getting enough sleep. They didn't know it. That's just how they scored. And then after five days, Their sleep scores were significantly enhanced into a level that was adequate. and then what's more exciting Is that without breathing anymore? I mean, hopefully they kind of took some of it with them, but 30 days later they were retested and, all but one of the scores was still significantly increased. anxiety significantly had decreased. increased the wellbeing, which, reverse scoring it. anxiety went down significantly. Depression went down significantly. Stress and then their sleep scores were still increased after 30 days.

Robyn Cohen 20:25

just from the breath work that they did 30 days ago. Yes. And that had reverberations a month later.

Daniela 20:33

Yes,

Robyn Cohen 20:34

except for one person. That's remarkable, Daniella. Wow.

Daniela 20:37

It is remarkable.

Robyn Cohen 20:38

Yeah

Daniela 20:38

I chose this based on another study and I can't remember the author. I had to create my study based on work and that's how the science is done. you're building upon work. That's already been done, but there was another study that took some PTSD veterans and, did. Breath and some other things that significantly increased their well being 30 days later. and then there was a 7 day study and I wanted to see, oh, can we find a minimum effective dose? Can we do something similar for less than 7 days? What if we only have 5 days? Will that still work 30 days later? Yes, it did. But since then, I got to present this research, most recently at the Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Florida, which was very exciting because it was all, mostly actual doctors that are working with people. So it's exciting to share it with people that can share the protocol or just share the information with their actual patients because it's hard to get the word out there. Yeah. About how impactful just our breath can be in changing our state and our, mental state and our physical state, And then from there is where we are able to launch, our best selves. instead of just surviving, how do we get from surviving to thriving?

Robyn Cohen 21:46

Yeah, what you're sharing it's like you're like in my life reading my journal right now about about seven months ago I started doing the Bryan Johnson. Don't die protocols it's a vitamin mineral

Daniela 22:01

I don't know him, but I know Don't die.

Robyn Cohen 22:03

and the number one, even though people are paying for his vitamins and minerals and, trying these protocols, his number one thing, like if they never try a single vitamin or mineral or powder that he provides, is to get good sleep like your job, you have to become a professional sleeper. And when I first started this seven months ago, I was, you know, the hustle culture and the racing to get where, I don't know, but I just felt like I had a thousand thousand things to do. And There was no way that I was going to grant myself seven or eight hours of sleep. No, if like five and a half hours, six hours maybe and I did not know until I took on, and this is also in conjunction with hearing about what you were doing and some of our friends, doing the study and I'm hearing Bryan talk about it, you're doing this research and I'm like, okay. Well, if Daniella is talking about it, I was like, I'm gonna go ahead and give it a whirl. And I have literally stepped into a new, experience of life and living like a new wow. You know me to be an energetic kind of a person, I mean, or maybe you don't, but when you think

Daniela 23:18

of me,

Robyn Cohen 23:18

even before I started sleeping. So now that I'm actually making it my job to stay in bed, even if I'm awake, I'm like I got to become a professional. I got to do my sleep training like a baby. I'm like, I'm staying in bed at least seven hours. And then if I can stay in bed longer than that, eight hours. O M G. The quality of my day for all of you sports fans out there listening it's like a supercharged force field of energy that has come to meet my already generally energetic disposition. But now I don't have the crushing dips and the roller coaster has smoothed out And I believe it is the sleep. I believe it. Because I'm doing it. I believe it too. And it's hard for me to stay in bed. Oh my gosh. It's hard for me to stay in bed. I have to do a reframe and a, I hypnotize myself and imagine a golden ball of light or my favorite color. The golden sea. Yes, the light?

Daniela 24:17

Oh, this is like a chi, uh, you know, in Qigong, it's like this golden light ball.

Robyn Cohen 24:21

Yes, and so I, drum up this ball of light, and I focus on it, and I let the thoughts go, and pass by like birds through the sky. And I can get back to sleep And I know people are talking about it, but it's just talk until you actually try it on until you actually start, as you said, breathing, you know, yes. this podcast. It's called the daily joy ride, because on any given day, even today, when we started out and I couldn't get any of the electronics to work or the sound, I couldn't hear Daniella, um, the dysregulation was real. And it is about in the moment, employing a practice because you said you would. and Like you said, it only takes five minutes of breathing, but sometimes it was like, it's three good breaths, three good breaths. Yeah,

Daniela 25:09

three, that's all,

Robyn Cohen 25:10

yeah. And I can come back to myself and be ready and awake and, ready to move forward rather than in the past without sleep and without, really taking on breath practices, which is just to stop the action and take a huge MRFing breath, right? Like without that, I'm at the mercy of it all whether it's a car accident or something as simple as the postman didn't come today and I really needed to mail that letter, whatever it was, that would become something that would take me much more time to crawl out of that space of dysregulation and dis ease but nowadays with the sleep and the breathing. like life has a different kind of glow and I can trust in it. Like I didn't use to be able to trust that I could get out of a ditch, that I could get out of feeling like I was abandoned on the side of the road to die because they didn't cast me in that role. I didn't use to have tools to do that. in my mind's eye and in my experience I would literally be. Abandoned, left in a cave somewhere with no food and water, and that was how I was going to end my life. It felt like that, that kind of despair and annihilation. And I didn't have all the things that you're talking about, which is why I just, I so love and honor humans, human sprites like you, Daniella, who are like, you dedicate your time on this earth, to help support people to have lives worth living. Because when I was in those cycles, the pain and shame and looking for approval that was never gonna happen and feeling annihilated when it didn't, life doesn't, it doesn't feel much, it doesn't feel like, well, what's the point of all this? This, this doesn't feel like the gift that everybody talks about. The once in a cosmos you, like, this doesn't, this feels like garbage. This feels like a trash can. And it is because of knowing people like you, and knowing people that do the kinds of things that you do to support other humans in this experience of our existence. I mean, more than sleep,

Daniela 27:20

it's relationships. More important, the good life. Robert Wallinger, The Good Life. It's a good book. Can you say a little more about that? yeah,

Robyn Cohen 27:28

Social connection.

Daniela 27:29

Social connection and relationships is the number one, thing for longevity. More than, I mean, I like to think of it like a cake. in a sense we need the physical activity, the nutrition, the sleep, the stress resiliency, the attitude, energy, support, social connection. We need all these things and if you just take one out, like you take one ingredient out of baking a cake, it's not going to rise. you have to have all of the ingredients.

Robyn Cohen 27:56

and We've talked a lot about things, programs, seminars, relationships classes. What have you learned? How do we get it together to actually maintain these relationships, nurture these relationships? How do we get it together? Don't we keep getting

Daniela 28:12

into the job we need that we actually need for ourselves? I ask myself, why am I doing all this? Because I must need it. I must be needing part of this for myself. To heal myself. you know, most of us are projecting onto other people. am I helping other people? To help these parts of myself, all of it, what I've learned mostly. And I think we hear a lot these days, which the most deeply in me is that we need the village, how we used to survive, you know, human relationships are a biological imperative and you can't just lean on one person, like your partner to be your, everything you're confident, your lover, your best friend, you know, this is like Esther Perel talk, my favorite psychotherapist, but we need a village and we need friendships. And we need grandparents and we need elders and we need parents and all of these people to support us. We all need support and how it used to be, just, I love working with new mothers because that's the most pivotal time for a baby. The mothers need the most help, I think, new moms, because they are alone so much, in isolation. And how it used to be, you would have all of your people around you, cooking for you, wrapping you, support, holding the baby, other moms possibly feeding the baby. And now, it's done all alone, and there's a lot of postpartum depression. But that affects babies so significantly for the rest of their lives. The first six months of a baby's life of attachment. if the mother is not in a good place that affects the child for the rest of their life. so I always say like the mothers need the most, the new moms need the most attention. so. that's why we all need all these crazy tools now that we didn't used to need. because we didn't live in a lifestyle that was this, chaotic, we used to just be walking around and be in nature and bending down a lot to whatever, pick our food or lift things up. And it's just so sedentary, it's so sedentary and isolated that we have to use all these tools to kind of get back to a homeostasis for our bodies and minds where it used to happen, more naturally, but now we have to find ways to get back there superficially almost, but using things that belong to us, like our breath,

Robyn Cohen 30:19

if we are

Daniela 30:20

alone,

Robyn Cohen 30:20

let's say, I mean, I moved out to Los Angeles, didn't know anybody, Not that I was postpartum, but I didn't know a soul, you know, I slept on my towel Yeah. For a little while before I had a bed or furniture. So what are you finding you can share in this time when it is very easy to feel totally isolated, even if you're with another human being. So how do we get over that, whether we're with another person or not, like. You started to talk about physical activity, but how can we generate a sense of belonging community and community if in fact we don't necessarily have one just yet, or we have one but we're disconnected from it. What's our first step, like back into that are a tribe. It's

Daniela 31:11

difficult, and. It's self investigation first, knowing yourself I always tell people, I think the best thing we could do is finding what you're passionate about. So that's where the self investigation comes in, finding a group, maybe online, there's groups, there's support groups. And then there's you know, hiking clubs or, whatever you like to do climbing for every single thing that there is. So that's always my first go to like find your people. And of course in person is better but what's kind of cool even about my own study, I was hoping one of my hypothesis was that the group, the in group. breathers would. Do better than the people that were isolated around the world doing breath alone in their house. I still believe that to be true based on co regulation and mirror neurons and all that stuff being with people is different. And what was exciting about the study was that it didn't make a difference. The people that were alone and isolated doing this online still had the same impact of improving their sleep. improving their sleep and reducing anxiety and all of these things too. So we do have the tools within ourselves and we need people. So yeah, I would say the first step is just finding one person and we don't need a group big group of friends. You need one person. You need your cat your dog. That's another way. Your cat and dog can provide co regulation and endorphins. oxytocin. You can start there if you're not even like a people person. But I always suggest and promote, finding out what it is you want to do. And that changes our purpose, changes our passions change. Maybe this week it's drawing. And I want to, you know, find people, you could go on subs back, or you could go on any social media outlet and find a drawing club or something that you're interested in and join that group. That would be, I think the first, getting outside nature.

Robyn Cohen 33:01

You

Daniela 33:02

know, I don't want to call them simple, but fixing the things first, like, Nutrition and exercise, even if it's just 10 minutes of snack. I like to call it snacks, like even an exercise snack. You can get out and walk for five minutes around the block. We all have five minutes to do things. And now the most recent science in everything is showing it only takes five minutes to make a significant impact on ourselves. Five minutes of breathing, five minutes of walking, so if we tackle all these things first, I think it would change a lot of our mental health problems before we go into like trying to heal all the trauma. We could just start simply and people don't want to do the work unfortunately, but that's when it's most rewarding. So I work with like a wheel with people that's healthy body, peaceful mind. Joyful heart, all that takes action, a cure to any like anxiety or a lot of things is action, just an action, but of course it's very difficult to get into that. it's hard to take the first action, the first step, but if you're getting support from someone or just telling someone, one person, I'm feeling this. One person you trust, can you help me? Or, not even can you help, just sharing, just sharing with one person? I think that's for loneliness, because loneliness is definitely a killer. Yeah,

Robyn Cohen 34:20

when you were sharing about finding something you're interested in that lights you up, the importance of finding something that you really love to do, connecting with people that like to do those things, whether that's a craft or a group that's going hiking, and this is sort of a caveat, or maybe it's a tangent. I don't know. You tell me, but I've heard from a lot of incredible women and men that they have figured out their life's purpose. And moreover, they continue to go after it, even though they're terrified, they don't like speaking in public, they don't want to have to deal with all of the insecurities that come up, but they continue to go after it, because they have, on the other side of being courageous, doing it for their children, so that their children can have an example, because as you know, it's not what we say, it's what people see, it's what they experience, some words don't really teach. It's what you do and who you are that people glom onto and absorb more than what we say. and that makes so much sense to me. Like I can imagine, I don't have children. There was a time when I was, Deep into that conversation, and it was a possibility and then it wasn't and it could be again. But the question is for people that don't have Children that don't have that I'm doing this because I want my daughter to see this. I want my son to have this. I want them to know that their mom is a force of nature and the only way they're gonna know that is by experiencing that. So I am getting on with it. So for people that don't have children, and some of our listeners, whether they do or don't, but for those who don't have that kind of all encompassing motivation, as I imagine it would be if you have children, what are we doing it for? What can we do it for? What can we do it for? What can get us over our terror and our fear and our shame and our smallness to go out and live huge, massive, impactful lives when we don't have in the background, I am doing this for the next generation. my children, what can we use what can we glom on to. Well, I will say that

Daniela 36:40

I obviously have used that I want my daughters to. Know that it's possible to raise a family and go out and follow your dreams too. But more than that, selfishly, I think about when they're gone off and doing their own thing, and I don't really hear much about my parents all the time and what they're doing, unfortunately. that for myself, it's just like, I think if we get out of your own head, it's more about being of service, like the more you just think of being of service and not doing things for ourselves, then you find purpose. I think our purpose changes in our life. it can change multiple times. sometimes I think in the meditation or zen or I don't know what world, can we just be here for the experience of existing? Just it's already a miracle that we made it here. It's a miracle that you're born and here and here this is just luck. so I've been given this opportunity of life and being born where I am and so it's a privilege, all of it. learning to look at life as like a privilege. And I think finding purpose over and over again is more like a lot of my clients. I'm like, get a job because the more you're of service, the more you are just out of your own selfishness of like what you're doing, or I want to make this even as, an actor this. Piece of work. So I can put all of myself into it and it helps people feel a certain way and it engages them and it helps them articulate and know feelings that they never even knew they existed and identify with themselves. That is so helpful. I mean, I lean into music and two movies for that. And I'm so grateful to actors that can do that. just giving it to something else, something bigger than yourself to keep thinking, if I'm affecting one person, like through this film or this music or me with one client, then that's going to have a ripple effect on so many levels of you helping people, you know, movies, and that's why people are so obsessed with them because it helps them feel and it helps them remember. And it helps them inspire. It inspires people to find that feeling their purpose and so forth. So I think it's mostly, I don't know which, Picasso maybe or Carl Jung, you know, they both have quotes that say something like, our purpose is to figure out what your passion is or what your purpose is and then give it away. That's when you're actually happy when you give it away.

Robyn Cohen 39:02

That's what the Meisner Technique says. For actors, put your attention on the other person. Give it all away to the other person.

Daniela 39:07

Just get away. And then it's like, it's such a relief. Yeah. And the people I see most that have the most, suffering, is when they're in just, Not in any action at all for themselves or for anyone, you know what I mean? They're stuck Where

Robyn Cohen 39:23

do you begin with those people because there are people that will come to you I'm sure many people saying I'm suffering I cannot literally see a way out of this at all You don't know my story. My story is not conducive to getting a job When people are lodged in that Place of fear and anxiety and smallness and terror and if you can bring this into what you're doing today with walking with people Like what are you sharing with people that cannot see a way out from their perspective? How do you start to get them to see otherwise how and what does that look like in this new practice? I love this practice. I'm a walkaholic I just said that for the first time. I've never said it. I walk on a good day. I walk four miles to 11 miles a day And I learn lines and I go up the hills and I create bilateral stimulation so that I can Rock all the language of the plays that i'm learning. I recently was learning five plays in repertory It's about 500 pages of material and you know had to figure out what night it was to know what role I was going to go out and do and which play to speak the lines from. and I found that I had to go outside and do it for two reasons. One for breath training, because I'm in a hilly place and I needed to make sure that my central nervous system could handle the athletic event that these plays are because they're highly athletic. and I knew that if I were to learn them on my couch, it would have nothing to do with the world of performance. But I also knew that my brain was going to be more open to receiving and to remembering the language when I was outside and being stimulated the right, left, right, left bilateral stimulation. I also do the tapping, but can you talk about what you're doing in that vein and how you get people out of, we'll call them. The metaphoric and literal dumps in what you're doing.

Daniela 41:19

well, first of all, they showed up with me. that's already huge. They've taken agency. You know, they're there. They know they've needed help and they've already reached out. That's huge. Wow, yeah, that's huge in itself. you're here. You have taken action for yourself. that's the most important thing to realize that you have agency. I'm not here to heal anyone. I am here to help you remember that you are full and whole already. I might be asking you questions. We're out walking. You're in nature. I am co regulating with you. I am sharing. I have like, Special psychic instincts as well. when I am breathing with another person, we do breath work together. I'm taking them through different practices and figuring out, helping them figure out what is going to work for them because the same practices don't work for everyone. So I'm just like a tailor and I am helping them figure it out. But like I said, they already showed up if they're so far deep and gone, I just, I honestly start asking them, tell me something that you're proud of in your life that you've already done. Like it's about remembering and then bringing these feelings back into the present moment, and then we can ride momentum after just going on a walk you're moving, you know you're talking about the bilateral stimulation the EMDR came from a woman Francine Shapiro, sadly, who passed away a couple years ago. the reason she came up with EMDR, which is Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing. How she came up with that is because she had patients that she sat with in the office, and then she also took out just, you know, on walks. She recognized the patients and clients that she took out walking were processing their problems and healing so much faster than the people just sitting across from each other, when they were just sitting across from each other. Okay. And then trying to figure out 30 years later, how that worked, the science behind it was because of a few things, the bilateral scanning of the eyes as in the environment, as they're naturally walking. So EMDR came from walking, I call it.

Robyn Cohen 43:19

Whoa, I did it a year of EMDR. I didn't realize that was its origin. That's connection origin. Mic drop. Mic drop. Came from walking.

Daniela 43:27

yeah, it came from walking. And so when they were trying to figure out the science behind it, it's the bilateral eye stimulation from your eyes naturally scanning as you walk and the forward motion of it is Because of the competing mechanisms happening within the brain, it is reducing fear and anxiety in the amygdala. So when that is, happening, we are better able to process everything.

Robyn Cohen 43:52

that is so brilliant and how it's connected to EMDR, which has become more. Known to people it became known to me. I sat in this office with this incredible. Dr. Deborah Sweet she was out of the trauma center in LA and PTSD specialist and I sat in these offices And I was like, what are we doing? What are we doing guys? I'm to talk turkey about this. We'd sit in the office and she would point to places on the wall and I'd look to the right and look to the left and think about my ex boyfriend who shattered my heart, who I could not even imagine being in the room with without palpitating and getting very upset. And somehow over the course of a year and a half, I didn't know what was happening. that level 10 anxiety, somehow dismantled itself. I was like looking back and forth and she would point to the wall and we'd do it again. And sometimes she'd sit next to me, she would ask if she could put a hand on my shoulder. she taught me havening, this, the havening. Self soothing. We have that self soothing and even while I was doing it, I was like, yeah, it feels good. But how am I going to see that ex boyfriend again at the premiere? I'm going to throw up. How am I not going to throw up when I see him? right. Not because I blame him. It's never that, right? It's all about what I'm carrying and what I made that relationship mean. So I'm not blaming anyone I'm so grateful for all my teachers, all my teachers, my exes, my teachers. Thank you. I love you. you talked about your, your psychic ability. I'd like to talk a little bit about that and how that comes into play in your practice, but also if you could just share for our avid audience, how you met and dreamed up your current husband of how many years? we've been married 15 years know that this is wow 18 years high 18 is major so the 18th letter in the Hebrew alphabet is chai It means life itself. Life itself is the number 18 in the Jewish language and that's why people say, meaning To life you've, you've heard that before it's because hi, the Kabbalistic and the numbers and the systems and the ancient mysticism talks about 18. So

Daniela 46:05

beautiful.

Robyn Cohen 46:06

So it's amazing. You've known each other 18 years. No coincidence. And, the 18 is, life itself. So do you want to share a little bit about that story? It's just so delightful.

Daniela 46:15

the story of, us getting together and how you first knew each other. Well, yeah, our parents were friends. We've known each other our whole lives. Our parents, our moms, grew up together in Los Angeles and remained friends. So we're family friends. I'm six years older than him, so I was actually a babysitter. For him. You guys hear that?

Robyn Cohen 46:41

Okay. I know it's hot. We I like him younger is what you want to be a babysitter or do you want to be a nurse? They are salivating out there in the stands. They're like, I wish my babysitter had married me. Gosh, darn it. Okay. Continue. Continue.

Daniela 46:56

yeah, it's a good story. I knew

Robyn Cohen 46:58

him when he was how old?

Daniela 46:59

I am since he was born, but I started babysitting when I was about 12 and he was six.

Robyn Cohen 47:05

Oh my god, they're so cute. Okay,

Daniela 47:07

And then, the pivotal, I guess, moment that makes every story, makes the story so Exciting is that he, kicked and fell through ice and ice pool and we were up in Mammoth and I was out babysitting the kids. It was my job. I was watching his sister and my brother and I was the oldest of the four. and he was the youngest and, yeah, he was, he was a handful and, he kicked through this ice and he fell down through into the water and I jumped in and I saved his life and I pulled him out and I wasn't thinking, Oh, geez, I'm saving this boy's life. I was actually thinking. Fuh, I'm gonna get in so much trouble. I have to like, I'm in charge of these kids.

Robyn Cohen 47:45

But did you know that you were saving your future husband's life? Did, did some fiber of your being have that all connected? I mean, there's no time, right? Oh, absolutely not. But the future moments are in the now moments in the past moments. It's all now it's all now future past, right? When you're spiritualistically speaking, so did you have any sense of like this boy? He falls through the cracks He's in the ice in the hypothermic waters. I saved his life. Do you think that was the beginning? I mean, he's six years old. So it couldn't have been a love story like

Daniela 48:16

but

Robyn Cohen 48:16

what what was it? He describes

Daniela 48:18

he yeah, he describes that as the beginning Uh, what's funnier to me is that he became like a Wim Hof instructor. you know, the breath and the ice, the ice man. He is also the ice man himself. So there was a lot of impact from that experience and event in his life.

Robyn Cohen 48:35

You've worked with Wim Hof, through vis a vis, your husband Reese and or he's worked with him. Yeah, he's been a student of his and done that whole. He, yeah, the whole thing.

Daniela 48:46

Wow. Yeah, and that's part of our practices too. I bring cold. I bring breath, the cold. There's so many things that we can work with, the sauna. And building our capacity for stress. That's what we're trying to do with a lot of these practices. It's not just regulate because regulation doesn't mean equal calm all the time. Regulation means, you know, being accurately like responsive to what is happening instead of going into a freeze or a fight fight, but also. with these practices where we're kind of, pressing on our stress button, we're expanding our capacity to handle stress that when we get into our normal, stressful environment. They're not as stressful because our body is acclimated to more acclimated to because we've spent so much of our lives desensitizing ourselves, for example, you know, with the temperature like we keep it at 72 or whatever all the time. And so you're never uncomfortable. Your body doesn't have a chance to. Expand the contract. just cardiovascular Lee speaking. We're not pumping. We're not exercising all of our our abilities as human biologically speaking, so we're in this comfort state all the time. We always have food, we don't have to worry about it, we don't have to fast because there's food all the time. so that's why we need these crazy protocols now to help our body stay healthy and remember what it was like before when it had to like work for things. And we all know that when we work for something, it's better. Everything is better.

Robyn Cohen 50:14

Yeah, I love the word capacity and I love the way you talk about the capacity for stress, as an actor and in the world of performance in the past before I had you and other wise people in my ear and therapists and coaches that I went to, it was like war performing often felt like battle and the level of anxiety was so intense and in the audition world, you know, probably some of the viewers are in the world of arts and crafts and go and audition for things. Which felt like, and I don't, I don't want to sound dramatic, but well, I'm an actor. It's okay. But it felt like being in front of a firing squad that those six people in the room, once you get to a certain point, you have six people, 11 people. At one point when you're going up for a network test. I remember that. Forget

Daniela 51:01

that.

Robyn Cohen 51:02

you have 25 people with clipboards in front of them. It's called a test, a network test. And at several times I was in these big rooms with the executives And it's called a test and they're going to see if you get the go ahead to be the new series regular on fill in the blank TV show. There was a time when it felt like, there was a saber tooth tiger in the room. Like I said, it was a firing squad and there have been times right after the landmark forum, right after I've met with a coach where I have expanded my capacity, as you talked about. To be in front of 25 strangers with clipboards testing me on my acting and it has felt like the most fun thing in the world. And so these days, I'm trying to, I'm trying to have it be the most fun thing in the world, no matter what. And toward that end, I love that you're speaking about our capacity for anxiety and temperature pressure, but I am also realizing that it's about my capacity to feel good because I haven't had, I've had so little capacity to feel good, let alone the anxiety. I mean, maybe it's really talking about Same thing, flip sides of the same coin. But for me, like, yes, expanding my capacity to feel good? Yeah,

Daniela 52:26

I think that's a gift of age too. Unfortunately, youth is wasted on the youth. But like, I'm all about like finding the joy now. But yeah, that is a gift of getting older. And just even exposure therapy and knowing yourself deeper and knowing, their ability to endure. Those people, which is why I even quit. I couldn't do it. I just, it was too, I cried. You have children, you've

Robyn Cohen 52:50

had children without any narcotics in bathtubs. you've done more than, I mean, you can't compare apples and oranges, but It's interesting I don't know. Can you even compare those kinds of things? Like you've done the scariest thing in the world. You've given. You, okay, I'm going to I'm going to stop screaming because Zoom can't handle it. But for people listening in, how would you compare the level of anxiety of bringing life into the world? And as you just said, you stopped acting because it felt that significant, that kind of yuckiness and upset and terror and fear. Being judged,

Daniela 53:27

everything, it just felt like I, I couldn't unpersonalize it. I couldn't not take it personal. I could do that probably. Now, I couldn't do it at that time, at that age, in my teens and My early twenties is when I was there.

Robyn Cohen 53:41

that's interesting you say you could not unpersonal it because the very nature of giving birth it is all about the other person. just the very nature of having children, it is about the other person. You're bringing them into life. So now, in audition rooms, Exactly, it's not about me.

Daniela 53:55

Again, it's, it's not about me. And in the audition room, this is, we're judging you, like you're good enough or you're not good enough. you know, I took it so personally. Personal, like it was, it was too painful. I mean, it was too painful and I couldn't, like I say, I'm personalized. I couldn't not take it so personally that the

Robyn Cohen 54:11

time, but I think You do of course now have the tools and this is what, this is the whole thing, whether you're going up for an audition or you're giving birth, it is about loving other people into life. Yeah. Yeah.

Daniela 54:26

Yeah. And doing it anyway, not just keep going. It's like, whatever the quote it's such a good one about you're never not going to be scared, but you still just do it anyway.

Robyn Cohen 54:39

Yeah, that's

Daniela 54:40

what

Robyn Cohen 54:40

courage is. courage if you're not afraid. It's not courage if you're not afraid. Yeah. and mustering that. How do we muster the courage? Do we go back to the breath? Do we go back to a good night's sleep? How do we muster the courage?

Daniela 54:55

also just trust, like something developed, I mean, trusting in whatever higher power God universe, that's a big part of it, I think, for

Robyn Cohen 55:05

I mean, mystically, mystically and psychically, what are you getting these days? And how is that coming into play?

Daniela 55:12

I can't like, yeah, it comes into play. I've always from a very young age had like, like visions. It comes as like your She has superpowers. No, like you see a picture. And I imagine like I had, Oh, I must've seen that on Instagram. it's like a picture that I thought I already saw. So I've always had these, I haven't put much effort into it, cultivate, like. Yeah. I'm going to become psychic right now and I'm going to channel. I don't, do that, but I just have certain visions and feelings about people that I thought I already knew. It's kind of nostalgic. It's kind of like a deja vu, almost. so when I am connecting to people, my clients mostly, I kind of ask their permission. not like actual, like, I'm going to ask your permission to tap into you. I do in a different way. and I breathe with them and I'm co regulating with them, but just my body and my breath and my walking and I'm connecting to them. And, there's a part where we use as a music therapy, where we're just sitting together for a little, small bit of time, but I just get hits. I just get downloads of like. This person needs this right now. Oh, they need to be back doing their art or like I can tell he's holding this in his belly right now his stomach keeps having some stomach pain. I just get little downloads on people, and I think that we all have this ability I really do. It's called like you know your gut instinct when you know something. I think it just takes a deep listening. Deep listening and trust. access it? How do we get access to

Robyn Cohen 56:41

it?

Daniela 56:41

Well, that's what I mean, like, yeah, it's getting quiet, it's getting still, it's believing that it's there to begin with, that we have a knowing of ourselves and knowing of, we can know each other. And yeah, that's difficult for me. Like I said, I don't get it with everyone and maybe it's about them being open to, open to it, open source. and then I do get it a lot with some people, and I'm able to help them more. And I'm not telling them, I'm having this vision that you need to do this. I am asking it in a way of like, have you ever thought about this? Or did you, know, did you used to do this? I'm pulling it out of them for them to remember it for themselves. I'm finding a way to remind them of, you need to be doing this. Like I said, I think it's all about them remembering themselves as whole and what that meant for them. I mean, I make suggestions and stuff, and I'll, you know, it's not that deep, like, I can tell that this person is, you know, it's not, Psychic as much as it is an intuition got hit of a knowing of them, a knowing of what they might need. Just like a mother knows her baby, like there is just, there's just energy that can't be explained by science and there's just magic in the world. There's some magic in there out there.

Robyn Cohen 57:58

I think so. Well, you're a living proof of that. an example of that

Daniela 58:03

you know, I've been doing the, you know, breath work and all these, you know, maybe wooboo practices for so long. And, it's so exciting to be part of research and being part of education in the academic world that is helping Land these practices with some scientific understanding and background to it just to validate everything to be like, yeah, the yogis have known this forever. And see, here it is the science. So, when I'm talking about this psychicness, which isn't really psychic. This is intuition. Maybe that is just mirror neurons, you know, the mirror neurons affecting each other. we have this like 15 feet of energy that, you know, when someone walks into a room, you can know sometimes whether you kind of like that person or not, you don't know why, you just know, yeah, everything is energy. So, I love just combining and these gaps in the worlds of, spirit and science. so much. And. All the practices that go with that meditation, breathing, yoga, dance. I love

Robyn Cohen 58:59

dance. Yes. Oh, Daniella, it's so, it's incredible to be in your presence, whether we're in person at a sleepover or we're in virtual cyberspace. But as you said, like the energy, love bomb, Force of nature spiritual intuitive goddess that you are it's like I've always felt this way But it's so special to be around you I always I think about you like I think like I want to be more like you not when I grow up because we're probably About the same age. I don't know but it's like that's how it is with you so before we complete, just like, just for my audiences to like getting to know you a little more, a couple questions. Like getting to know Daniella I know we could go on forever. I would keep her here all day, but she has two gorgeous children, a gorgeous husband. They're all there. the teenager is texting her. But before we sign off Okay. Okay. Who besides your parents who besides your parents has had the most impact on your life and why?

Daniela 1:00:02

I would say mentor that I have in psychology, we call it a charismatic adult, her name is Madeline Cohen, and she was my sponsor in alanon. I was in Alanon. My twenties and some of my thirties. she did a lot for me of what I hope that I am doing with other people, helping me remember who I am at the core, whole and perfect and complete, and she was that person for me, for sure. And she's still a very special person in my life and we go to all the dance concerts in Los Angeles, We go to Alvin Ailey every March. We go to about four or five a year.

Robyn Cohen 1:00:41

Can I come with you? Yeah. I would I love seeing live theater and dance and I don't see live dance enough. Oh, that's incredible. Madeline Cohen. I wish I could say I was related to her. We have the same last name. It I wish I could say, oh, that was my cousin, but. Oh, I love that. That's so beautiful. I feel the connection and the love there. It's like. it's all in you, all over you. and, uh, well, since we talk a lot about arts and crafts on this show, what piece of art or work of art has had the biggest impact on you? Ooh, what piece of art? Can it be like a

Daniela 1:01:18

dance as

Robyn Cohen 1:01:19

well? Like it could be anything of art.

Daniela 1:01:21

Yeah. Yeah. I would have to the Alvin Ailey. Company because not only did I get to study and perform with the first company, not the main company. I had a scholarship there but they've been the most impactful. I mean, cause dance is definitely my favorite art. Um, for sure. I mean, music, God, it's all connected. It's just everything, watching a dancer and feeling it the movement through your own body. the emotions that come from watching. I'd say Ailey because have obviously the technical training of ballet and they have just this soul, the soul, revelations,

Robyn Cohen 1:01:56

revelations,

Daniela 1:01:57

revelations, but what they. encompass what they embody as dancers and artists. it's like, in my opinion, no other dance company

Robyn Cohen 1:02:07

I so resonate with that, Daniella, because it was the soul. The soul. And when I, uh, when I was at Juilliard and I was seeing dancers come up into the world and before they were in their professional quote unquote lives, I would watch them and the communion that they were having, mind and body and spirit. And the thought that was there for me was there's God, there's God. Yeah. Yeah. I believe that. I

Daniela 1:02:41

feel the same.

Robyn Cohen 1:02:42

it's just so wonderful to circle back to that because you began, my first career was as a professional dancer as well. And there's something about the full and total resplendent embodiment of a thing, like whole, perfect and complete. Like your

Daniela 1:03:02

whole entire body, every part of you is expressing and engaged.

Robyn Cohen 1:03:07

Yeah,

Daniela 1:03:08

engaged.

Robyn Cohen 1:03:10

Oh, should we go back to New York and audition for Alvin Ailey Dance Company? my goodness. Daniella, thank you for being here today before we sign off. And it will also be in the show notes, but if you can share with people how they can find you, how they can be in touch with you, where they can go in the world, social media or a website, so they can connect with you. it's called wellness. Yeah.

Daniela 1:03:38

Well, I call my practice wellness walks, but wellness walks, I have so many things that I offer as different modalities, of the healing. I would do online Zoom stuff as well, but it's under my name, Danielladevarney.com D-A-N-I-E-L-L-A-D-E-V-A-R-N-E y.com. Although all of my offerings, I am on Instagram @Daniellaphoto I think I'll be changing that soon to just my name, but for now it's D A N I E L L A P H O T O. Cause I love photography too.

Robyn Cohen 1:04:09

Oh, she's She helps people give birth. She worked with Alvin Ailey dance company. She's a breath worker. She's a psychologist. She just got a degree from Harvard and she takes photographs like a boss,

Daniela 1:04:25

a renaissance woman. that's another, I really believe, not to dive into a whole nother tangent, but photography is another modality of healing, to be seen. I love to photograph people and to be seen. the space I am providing for them to be them full self, their full selves. It could be very healing and very vulnerable to be obviously, photographed. So I sometimes use that modality with people at the end of working together I asked them if that's something that they want to do together. And it's just another piece to the puzzle.

Robyn Cohen 1:04:59

It's so huge. The puzzle that's never

Daniela 1:05:01

ending.

Robyn Cohen 1:05:02

It isn't. And it all is part of one puzzle because in the work we do as actors, when people get into my classes, like when you're taking their pictures, they get the experience that they got got, that they got seen. They got got by another person and I, and that's so radical and beautiful what you just shared about photography. Like it's the most kind of literal way that a human being, it moves me. That moves me really deeply because you've dedicated years of your life to photography and splendid, gorgeous, incredible, one of a kind photography with people and with your acting background It mirrors a kind of an acting exercise where you have the experience of Allowing another human being to be seen, to be heard while allowing yourself to be seen. So fascinating that of course you would go into that world it's like a, it's almost a Meisner kind of an exercise. You're just working off the other person. You're working off their behavior. You're in a dialogue and they let's do a repeat exercise here. Let's do it. The repetition exercise

Daniela 1:06:13

so

Robyn Cohen 1:06:14

good. So good.

Daniela 1:06:16

a I do have a photography website as well, which is Daniellaphoto. com

Robyn Cohen 1:06:21

Wonderful. That's on there. So you are findable. People can work with you. One on one. Groups. Classes. Yeah. Groups. Online. don't miss the opportunity, y'all. In your once in a cosmos experience. Don't, don't miss this. I need to

Daniela 1:06:35

come to your acting class and enjoy your class. Let's go. Let's

Robyn Cohen 1:06:38

go. I'm ready. We're going to do a repetition exercise and probably do a happy dance. Because

Daniela 1:06:43

that's

Robyn Cohen 1:06:43

what we do. Oh my goodness. Daniella, so

Daniela 1:06:48

much. Thank you. No, thank you so much.

Robyn Cohen 1:06:51

whenever I have the luck and good fortune to be around you, I'm always just like, over the moon, because really, I just I want to be around you all the time. That's the kind of person for those of you listening that haven't had the joy of being in a room with Daniella yeah. you're the human being avatar of the kind and quality of human being that I want to be around. All the time. And if you know, I know it wasn't gonna go that way. Reese was your guy. You saved him from the ice, he became your partner. It's not, I mean, it's a different kind of a thing. I don't mean it in that way. It's different. That was Reese's role. It's different. We have

Daniela 1:07:22

many soulmates, we have many soulmates. Our friendships. Yes, we have many soulmates. Our chosen FA families are as important as our real families and they, that's what it feels like to me. Yeah. We have many soul loves in our lives.

Robyn Cohen 1:07:36

Yes. Thank you. And I love you. I love you too. Thank

Daniela 1:07:39

you for being one of my soulmates.

Robyn Cohen 1:07:41

Thank you for being one of mine. Oh, Daniella. All right. Well, we will, convene again, either for a slumber party or part two of this podcast. Yes. Thank you for being here. Okay. I love you. I treasure you. I love you. I love you so much. Okay. Goodbye. Goodbye. I got it. I got it. Well, that was sensational. Daniella Devarnay. She is just the best! it's all there in the episode, but some of the takeaways it takes five minutes a day, y'all. We can reconstitute ourselves five minutes a day. We can get outside. we can take a walk around the block. We can call a friend. We can enjoy five minutes of breath work which will bring us back into regulation, into presence, into the fullness of who we are. And my wish for you is that we all just take back our minds and life force to say, that's it! I'm sitting down to breathe three big breaths. That's it. I'm sitting down to enjoy a nourishing smoothie, whatever it looks like, because I really think it is time to interrupt these. Just they're just patterns. They're just habits and patterns of behavior where we're on the go grab and go right. Human doings over functioning, overworking, overcompensating, doing everything for everyone else. We can interrupt that with five minutes a day. Of all the aforesaid mentioned. And then getting ourselves seen, getting ourselves heard and seen with our people. doesn't have to be a tribe or a whole village. It can be just one other person that, uh, sees you and hears you and, continuing to nourish those relationships with ourself and other, so join me in acting class to do that. That's what we do. All day, every day in the world of arts and crafts. You were hearing about the similarities and the work that Daniella does with her photography. It's a practice, but it's therapeutic and that people have the experience of being seen. by another human being. I think that's why I'm still in this, business of show because it's a way where we get to experience our shared humanity, really see people in the world, allow ourselves to be seen, and the healing, the healing that that brings. And, the fullness and the sense of well being that arises in these simple practices is totally profound. It's my wish for all of you. Thank you for joining me on this beautiful joy ride today. I can't wait for the next and the next and the next forever. It's on. Let's go. Forever is on. Until next time. Bye bye. Bye bye bye bye bye bye.