EP 50: Healing the Root Causes of Panic Attacks and Anxiety with Hypnotherapy: A Recovery Journey with Sari Cowsert

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Hey gorgeous—this episode is a must-listen if you’ve ever battled anxiety, panic, perfectionism, or the pressure to keep it all together while you fall apart inside.

In this jaw-dropping conversation, I sit down with intuitive hypnotherapist and master imagery facilitator Sari Cowsert to talk about her extraordinary setback-to-comeback story—one marked by debilitating panic attacks, health crises, hypervigilance, and years of living in survival mode while projecting “I’m fine” to the world.

Sari opens up about:

• Her experience with massive anxiety and multiple panic attacks a day
  
  
• Living in extreme control, shame, and fear while raising two young daughters
  
  
• Being dismissed by Western medicine and learning to advocate for herself
  
  
• The turning point that led her to subconscious rewiring, meditation, and a teacher who changed everything
  
  
• Why hypnosis is so powerful for women in recovery and anyone ready to break cycles, patterns, and old identities
  
  

We also dive into the deep truth that your subconscious is running the show—and you can rewire your patterns, heal old programming, and access the blueprint of who you truly are.

This episode is your permission slip to stop pretending, release the version of you that’s built on fear, and step into the woman you’re here to become.

Love Sari as much as I do? Connect with her here:

The Uncharted Way Podcast / Website / Instagram

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DM me on Instagram what you’d LOVE and we’ll celebrate + amplify your next level success in recovery together.

Hey gorgeous.

I love you.

I'm so proud of you.

And I believe in your ability to create a life you absolutely love.

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Girls Who Recover podcast with Dana Hunter Fradella, where incredible women just like you, go to transform life's biggest setbacks into your most powerful comebacks so that you can live a life you. Love. I'm your host, Dana Hunter Fradella, transformational coach and founder of Girls Who Recover, and my mission is to pull back the curtain on our mistakes, failures, shame and personal disasters, and light the way for how to use those to create your biggest and most gorgeous comebacks. Follow the show now. Grab your iced coffee and turn up the volume for girls who recover. Let's light it up. hello, gorgeous. Welcome back to The Girls Who Recover podcast. I'm your host Dana Hunter Fradella, and our guest today is a goddess. I'm just gonna out her out the box. The first moment I interfaced with her energy, which was in a Facebook group, which is a weird place, but I was, I said to myself, I, her energy has gotten going on and I wanna know this woman and I wanna spend some time with her. And so I like to do brave things, so I just hit her up. I was like, Hey, you got a great energy. Do you wanna come have a conversation on the girls who Recover podcast? And what do you know? The universe agreed. And here we are. So allow me to introduce my new friend, Sari Cowsert. She is the host of the uncharted Way. A no bullshit podcast for women ready to stop pretending and reclaim who they really are. Oh, I'm a hell yes on that. Sari is an intuitive hypnotherapist and master imagery facilitator, and she helps women burned out by perfection and failed systems break free from trauma patterns, people policing and false control through deep, intuitive work and unfiltered conversations with rebels and visionaries. Yes, to this, Siri illuminates the path back to our authentic, radiant selves reminding all of us that nothing was ever truly lost. Welcome, sir. How does that feel to hear? Just to say it out loud was like, yes, I knew I loved you. I feel like you just stuck an electric cord in me, to be honest. And I just lit up, also your beautiful voice and energy brings it a whole nother tone. So I will receive all of that. Thank you. Of course. Tell us a little bit you, where you are, your work in the world, and what made you a yes to come have a conversation on girls who recover. Yeah, I, number one, I live in Austin, Texas. And I feel like I, as a hypnotherapist, I. Call myself just a light. I literally hold the flashlight up for people to shine a light on a pathway that's possible. And so I hope that I am the pillar of light that attracts like all the bugs. I am just this thing over here saying, we can fucking do this and that if you don't know how to do it, we'll figure out a way and I'll light that way for you. And so I don't think that I'm the answer to anyone's problems, but I think that I can shine a light on what's possible and how we could get there. Ugh. Yes, you are the light. I will affirm and attest to that. I also really appreciate you saying I'm not the fixer or the answer to all your problems, but I will shine a light for you on what is a possible. And the other thing that's straight outta your bio is in a way that's not gonna bullshit you in a way that's going to be unfiltered so that your soul hears it. We're gonna bypass the mind and go straight to the soul. Does that resonate and that feel like that's the way you work? Even like that just sh shit shots chills at my body, right? Because that's literally what hypnosis is we're bypassing the analytical mind and we're shooting right into the subconscious to actually work with those programs and change them in a way that is truly authentically who we are. And to not have to put any sort of facade out into the world of what we're trying to be, but actually live who we're feeling as inside. Live who we're feeling as inside. Could you say a little bit more about what you mean there? I felt what you meant and can you tell our listeners what that means? Yeah, so there tends to be a gap that most of us live by. There's the version of ourselves that we push out into the world that we show everybody, and then there's the version of us that we're experiencing inside. And usually they don't match. And so my goal is to empower you to get to a place to where the inside is actually matching what you're putting out into the outside realm. That is magic. And I'm gonna put a sparkly pin in it because we're gonna come back and talk about how that work benefits women in recovery. I just can't wait to get to that part of the conversation. First, let's start with your story. So part of our conversation will be really shining a light on your setback to comeback experience, and then how about we spend the second part of the conversation around the work that you get to do in the world and how women in recovery are gonna love that kind of work and how it'll benefit them. Sound good? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Tell us, I'm panning you, the mic. Tell us about your setback to comeback story. Yeah. The version that you're experiencing today was not present for the majority of my life. And about six years ago, I was probably at my rock bottom, and that consisted of a woman who lived in massive control. Massive fight or flight anxiety was extremely debilitating. Having somewhere of 10 to 12 panic attacks a day unable to physically drive my children to school. Extremely codependent on my husband and very close people in my life. And no one in the world knew that I was experiencing it because again, what I was projecting out into the world was not what was happening in my day to day. And that stemmed from so many things. I'm someone who has always been really deeply connected to my body, and my body's very loud. It sends me lots of signals. And I took those signals and they turned into fear and they turned into being a hypochondriac. And then you add panic and anxiety on top of that. And one of most people, the first time they ever have an anxiety attack or panic attack feel, they feel usually like tightness in their chest, or they feel like their heart's racing, they're having a heart attack. Then you add the layer of like hypochondriac on top of that. And every time this is happening, at my worst 10 to 12 times a day, I'm thinking I'm having a heart attack and I'm going to die at every moment. And then when you have small children on top of that, you're, there's added fear of what the fuck is gonna happen to them if I'm here on the side of the road dying, having a heart attack, what's gonna happen to them? So this was just a glimpse of into what I was experiencing on a day to day. And add that my husband and most of his family are in the medical field in some capacity, and he's an ER nurse. So the many times that I did go to the ER in something's wrong and they're like, oh, you're just having a panic attack. Here's some Valium and you're gonna be fine. And really just every time it was the bandaid. It was the bandaid. Let's put a bandaid on it. And I would talk to my doctors, I'd talk to therapist, and there was never really anyone wanting to dig into what was going on, which then just created even more fear because I'm like, something's fucking wrong with me. Even to the point to where my husband would come home and he'd be like, Siri, you're fine. Like the people that I see at work, those people are sick. He's you're not sick. But that's also what goes to show. Western medicine doesn't correlate the mind and the body like they're. They separate them and most of American medicine, like we have the physical issues and then we have the mental issues, but nobody's working together. And I was experiencing both because if you look up the number of symptoms that can show up for a panic attack, there's like over a hundred and I experienced almost every single one of them in my body. So then when panic and worry becomes your identity, what comes next? Control. I needed to control everything because I felt so out of control. And then that really created even more fear and suffering because now I'm pigeonholing myself into this box of living. And at some point I was just there has to be fucking more to life than what I'm experiencing. And not that I was suicidal by any means, but. It was just like, this can't be why I showed up here on this earth to experience this. And living in this constant survival mode, this constant fight or flight, it was now actually beginning to cause disruption within my body. So one of the first things I got diagnosed with was hypothyroidism. And I remember at the time even just being like, wait, I have to take a pill for the rest of my life. I've never had this issue before. Why now? And that really bothered me. And it was the same thing of, oh, this doctor's giving me answers as to maybe why things are happening. But when they go to run your labs. They are only running your labs on X, Y, and Z. They're not doing a full thyroid panel that a functional doctor might do today. And of course my labs always came back perfect because I was taking the synthetic medicine, but nothing in my body felt better. And so it was just so frustrating that here I'm going to these professionals who are supposed to be the experts in their field, and nobody's giving me any answers. Nobody really wants to spend any time with me. And this is happening to so many people out there in the world. It is. And it's absolutely it's so sad. And so at some point, I really had to start advocating for myself and be willing to do some research. And so at some point I ended up getting on the natural desiccated thyroid hormone, which was helpful, but it still wasn't. Helping me fully and then add in pregnancy and children and the hormones and all of that, that, that has to offer. On top of that, just made me even more of a neurotic person was put on antidepressants and then was like a zombie for a number of years, but was also still having panic attacks at the same time. So then the medication wasn't fully helping me and when I would go to see a counselor for help, it was, let's just talk about it. There was never any tools given to me to be like, okay, what actually happens when you're going through a panic attack? Can you talk me through it? Can you get me to change my way of thinking? The only thing that would ever help me was I could get on the phone with my sister and we played this game and we called it the picnic game, and it was, I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing an apple. We would go through the entire alphabet back and forth and would distract myself until my body finally calmed down. And there's a reason why this works and I'll tell you in a little bit. But the other thing that I would do would be play solitaire on my phone.'cause it was distracting me, it was making me think differently. But I would say 90% of my panic attacks happened within the car. And when you're driving a piece of machinery, you don't really wanna be playing solitaire on your phone and Oh, don't do that. It was really hard and it was really, we lived in a area of town where if you wanted to get into the main part of town, you had to cross like a six mile bridge. And one of my worst panic attacks I had ever had was on the middle of that bridge and I had to. I can remember freaking the fuck out, number one, and when you are truly having a panic attack, my hands were clamping up. My heart was racing. I they were so clawed up. Like I couldn't even barely get out of the car. No one that would normally be the person that I would run to was answering their phone or supporting me and just pulling over on the side of this bridge and literally getting out, screaming, crying, like waving somebody down with my hands, all like crazy, fucking clawed out. Help me, somebody help me. And then this one family finally ended up and they helped me get to a gas station off the bridge. But then now this trauma of this bridge, right? Where most days I would have to cross this bridge, and now I would have to make sure. Somebody was available to talk to me on the phone while I crossed this bridge. All these things had to happen before I could even leave the house. So talk about control and debilitating and really needing yourself to be stuck in this identity, in this way of being. And so at some point I was just like, again, something's gotta give. So to make matters worse, I ended up again getting another diagnosis, which was PCOS. And if you know about polycystic ovarian syndrome there's a lot of things that come with it. And usually hypothyroidism or some sort of thyroid disorder usually comes with PCOS as well. They go hand in hand. But one of the biggest things that I ended up learning, not through a doctor or not through a therapist, but because again, I was researching, luckily we are in this vast, world where information is so inve available that I did find a book and it was I don't remember if it was called the PCOS Diva, but it was maybe that was the woman who wrote it, but it actually showed me that when you have PCOS, you're usually a insulin resistant. And two, having with that, having blood sugar issues. Well, Dana, have you ever had your blood sugar drop? Yeah, that's, yes. It was, that's my least favorite thing to happen. And I've told my husband, I have this, the trigger word Snickers, so whenever I say Snickers, my husband is okay, she's on red. We gotta get her whatever she needs to co to get back together. Yeah. Because I become a different person. Yeah. And what I'm curious like what were the like symptoms you would feel when your blood sugar dropped? My head gets woozy, dizzy, and then I get this racing, it feels like a flood, but it's like a waterfall, but it's going up into my head. And then if I feel dizzy and then I also feel like the back of my spine is pulling me down on the ground and then I get disoriented. So I don't know where I am or who I am, and I like most of the time, have to sit down on the ground in order to just be like, okay, I am a human. I am on earth. I am okay. And it's very disorienting for me. Yeah. So with all of that in mind, no telling how long I had actually had PCOS, my guess is it's probably been my whole life, but birth control, mast it, different things like that. But to have this, these blood sugar issues and that being the thing that happens when your blood sugar tanks, this would be a huge catalyst for in my anxiety. And I was in the hair salon for 17 years and when you're working long hours, long days, and you don't, you're not eating in between clients, but the break rooms filled with like chips and queso and cookies and like all the things and all things that you're gonna eat and probably gonna make your blood sugar tank. No wonder I was leaving work and the minute I got in the car, like all of a sudden I'm like feeling all of these sensations. And so what was really great about this book that taught me was that if I could actually start controlling what I put in my mouth, maybe the anxiety wouldn't be so horrible. So this was a huge stepping stone for me in it of, okay, I feel like I'm out of control in every aspect of my life, but one thing I can control right now is what I put in my mouth. Okay. And so that was really empowering, but that, I would say that even that only took away like 50% of the panic attacks, which was better, right? It is. It's still a win. And I think with that, like even just that first step of advocating for myself, it was like, okay, we had some improvement. We moved the brick a little bit. What else can I search for myself of how I'm going to be better? And if you would've met me, six, seven years ago, I was a total bitch. I was not nice to people. And the reason I wasn't nice was because I was having to control so much in me. And if something outside of myself was going awry, I was like, like strangling everybody with Siri's way or no way, because that was, I needed to feel safe in my control. One of the things that really also opened me up was just starting to really become the observer of how I was behaving. And I can remember, I'm really close to my sister and there was this one time that we were together and I had done something to piss her off. And usually I did, because again, it's Sarah's way or no way. And this was a person that, she was always the one on the phone with me whenever I needed help with my panic attacks. And she was my person at the time and really helped me out. And so I remember her, I pissed her off and at some point she was like, Siri, you're just a fucking bitch. And I, of course I like. Probably had something to say about it. I'm right. F you, you're wrong. All these things. And at the time we lived in Dallas and she lived in Austin. And so I remember driving back home and just like all of those hormones and chemicals fueling my body of who does she think she is? We get into those modes all the time with people. And we didn't end up talking for three weeks, which was really hard for me, number one, because if I had a panic attack, I was being so stubborn and selfish that I couldn't call her and that was hurting me. And then after like within those three weeks, I started asking myself, why am I hurting someone I love so much? And that this is what this control, this anxiety, this fear that had built up years after years was creating me to be this person. And I just didn't, I didn't like the way I was seeing myself. And I can remember there was a. A side by side comparison of an aggressive person versus an assertive person. And if you think about aggression there's a lot more emotion with it. There's that same thing of this is my way or pushing this on people and I didn't like that. And the assertive version was like, actually speaks so people can hear what you're saying. Like all these different traits that I was like, I know that I'm this, but I wanna be that. And so even just willing myself to how can I start to begin to treat people differently and not be this aggressive person anymore. So with that, removing the brick again, another step and each brick just kept. Following the yellow brick road and I ended up finding a really amazing teacher. I don't know if you know who he is, Dana, but it's Dr. Joe Dispenza. I love Dr. Joe Dispenza. We're basically best friends except for, he doesn't know it yet, but yeah, familiar. Love him. I love that. Yes. So I ended up hearing him on a podcast and he is a chiropractor turned neuroscientist. He holds these crazy meditation workshops, which now I'm like part of a cults and basically go to all of them and volunteer with his organization now. But he was the first person I had ever heard that could literally step by step tell me what was happening in my body when I was having a panic attack and why. And it was the biggest thing of somebody understands me. Somebody knows what I'm going through. And the biggest part of that, and this is what I tried to give all of my clients, is that for so long I thought that my anxiety attacks would just come out of thin air. Like nothing was really triggering them. It was just happening and I had no control over it. But what he taught me is that they don't build, they are created and they're created because I've created them. And that gave me a little sense of control back to my life of, okay, if I created this, then I can uncreate it. And if I've created that, okay, it's 3:00 PM on Friday, sir, it's time to have a panic attack. Actually, no, we're gonna do something so that this doesn't happen instead. And so that was really just the beginning. And meditation, he's huge on meditation. He was a hypnotist himself. And just understanding. We have a subconscious mind. I had never heard of that concept before in my life, and that it is this computer program that we have created that keeps us safe, right? That keeps us rolling in the thing. We get up, we get outta bed, we know to go brush our teeth, or we know to go make that coffee or we know to go to the bathroom. Like all of these autonomic things. We know how to drive to our kids' school without even thinking about it. Same way I had just my body knows how to have a panic attack without even thinking about it. I was in the passenger seat. I wasn't in the driver's seat. And so through subconscious meditation, I slowly started rewiring my brain and within six weeks of doing this work, I was a completely different person. Tell us what that means. What did that look like for you? I always say like one of the biggest things I remember. Let me step back a second. I knew that I was living in a prison. I knew that, and I didn't know what it was that I wanted, but I knew that I wanted to be free of the prison. And so in the beginning, that's really all it was like, how can I just be the opposite of what I'm feeling? Because a lot of times we don't know, like some people don't know how to tap into love. They don't know how to tap into joy. They've programmed themselves so much that like they don't know what that is and they don't know how to feel it or experience it. But if we could just tap into the opposite of what we are feeling and that liberation, that freedom, like that was like freedom to this day has always been my word of, what does it feel like to be in low vibration? Emotions, right? Meaning shame, guilt, fear, anger. Like it actually feels heavy in your body if you pay attention, right? Some people are more connected to their bodies than others, but it feels heavy. And what would it feel like to just take off that big ass trench coat and throw it in the road to feel free from it? And so that was what I was feeling. But the biggest thing, I remember one day coming out of meditation, and my girls at the time were probably like a and four, but I remember coming out and seeing my oldest and for the first time really looking at her and seeing the sparkle in her eyes and the freckles on her face and her smile. I hadn't seen that in years. So to be present with this beautiful little human that I created and to actually feel her love her brightness, her joy, her lightness. That was when I knew things were changing. That is gorgeous. So let me ask you a few questions. So six years ago, so your kids would've been one of them here, one of them not even here yet. Six years ago. Is that, am I doing the math right? No, they were little. Both. That was, yeah. So that was when they were about eight and four. So now they're 13 and nine. Okay. But they were still little. And even like with my oldest, when my anxiety was the highest, like I, I say to this day it makes me sad. But I would say the first, like three years of her life, I don't even consciously remember because of how dark. In my internal process, I was that when I was playing with her, I wasn't playing with her. I was so consumed with myself and it just makes me sad that's the version of me that she got in those early years. I want to just, I wanna acknowledge the woman who's nodding in the car, the women who are nodding in their car right now, listening to you say the thing that's on your heart about your experience. And I think that is what sets we are able to use our light to set each other free in that way. Do you know, did you, have you done any exploration around, so you have two kids? I have three. So I'm bringing my, I currently have a 5-year-old and a, and an 8-year-old and a 10. But I'm trying to think about those two little ones and then. Moving around your world, panic attack after panic, attack, control and fear. Control and fear. You use the word aggressive disconnects in your closest relationships and walking around basically. So filled with, you didn't use this word, but I'm gonna cortisol that we're just, that you were dysfunctional and your story isn't unique. There are a lot of women who are running on adrenaline and cortisol, not because they decided, okay, I just wanna be stressed out in the middle of my life. But because there's so much happening in the subconscious, which starts developing even before we get here on the earth, and then it's recording, and recording and never sleep. So anything you've ever experienced or even been around, and then maybe there's an argument that it goes back seven generations. I don't know. Yeah, let's just stick with this one. We're carrying all of this around in the Pandora's box of the part of the glacier that we cannot see, but is always moving. And its only job, like you said, is safety. And so my experience with things like anxiety, depression, panic, is those are all safety mechanisms. Because if I'm in panic, at least I know I'm safe and I'm not going to, whatever the thing is that I'm not, that makes me feel unsafe. So I'll just ask you a big question. I wonder if you have insight around. Was there something that you discovered underneath? And I wanna speak to this is not my story to tell, but I'll share just a little bit of it. I, my husband recently went through a multi-month experience where he was experiencing really significant panic attacks. Went to the hospital, we did all the things, and he tried a lot of different things as well. And so I have firsthand, I guess that's not firsthand as a secondhand experience of witnessing how incredibly debilitating and traumatizing it is to be in that experience. The path that he is on now is really examining what is going on in the subconscious that created that need, or created that experience and connecting it back to. Some sort of belief that's ready to be discarded or some sort of history that's ready to be, you use the word light where it's we're gonna shine the light on this so it dissipates. Did you find, was there a thing or an experience or something underneath those panic attacks and anxiety that you were able to shine the light on is a part of the freedom journey that you're on? Yes. I wanna speak to two things that you said. One being that witnessing someone go through it is one thing. And for a lot of people, if you truly have never experienced a panic attack, and I'm not saying like just anxiety, like a full on panic attack, you literally believe that it is absolutely happening to you, right? It is like almost life or death in that moment. And if you have never experienced that, there is a level of empathy that like just can't be had. And that was really hard because the majority of people in my world had never experienced it. And of course, like the bandaid is oh, go take a Xanax. And I'm like, I didn't like the way I felt off Xanax. And then there's Xanax hanger hangover after that would trigger another, panic attack to get down to the root of it. I think that, so I was raised Jewish and my mother was more of a, just like upstanding citizen of the Jewish community, not a practicing religious, like faith-based Jew in a way. And we had this conversation recently and there was a lot of validation for me from it of. I didn't believe in God. I didn't have faith that something believed in me. And my mom was just going through the motions. She didn't believe in it either. She still doesn't like God, love her. She's still living in her own like hell because she believes it's just her. And I think that when anxiety, a lot of the time takes over is because we feel like we're alone in this world and like we're the only ones who are showing up for us. And while that is true in a physical plane, like from an energetic plane, I don't believe that it is. Nope. And so I think what really started to flip the script for me was I had this ultimate fear of death. And because I had nothing backing it up, no religion, no real support. I remember having conversations with my mom of do we believe in reincarnation? And she's. Yeah, the Jews do, but there was no talk about it. There was no in depth. And my mom's not the best communicator and I love her for this, but it is what, it's the whole generation, Sarah. It's their whole generation. Like it's all moms of every woman I've ever interviewed. Take it personally. It's the patriarchy in a different generation. Okay. Yeah. So I think that this fear, I can remember, I, I remember telling my sister this and she's oh God, Siri, that's awful. But she, I can remember being probably like eight or nine years old and laying in bed and thinking that I could potentially die in my sleep. And until I fell asleep, I would just basically tell myself you can still feel your toes, so you must be alive. That was my 8-year-old, like rational thinking. And I don't remember like why I was so scared of death. My grandfather did die. Like when I was like, I don't know, nine or 10 or something. But I just think I had so much uncertainty around that. There's more to life, to me, like death now is very much a, it's just a point of ending so that we can be reborn into something, right? Yes. And so there's this belief for me now that there's something existing beyond death, right? We're all experiencing death every day. Our cells are dying every day and being reborn, right? The tr the plants outside, like all these things we're surrounded by death everywhere, but we as a society have really claimed it to be this like, finite thing, but we're cyclical beings. And to think that like the cycle would. Wouldn't continue, is irrational in a way. Yes. We're cyclical and we're energetic. And we're spiritual, and none of that ever begins or ends. And so I this, who knew we were gonna go here, but they, this body is like, it's just a spirit having a human experience in this particular body. The other thing I wanted to notice out loud was you said you were about eight or nine, which is when conscious mind develops. Up until eight or eight-ish, our subconscious mind just sucks in and believes every single thing that we hear that we're told that we experience. And then about eight, our conscious mind steps in and says, okay, I've got it from here. I'm in charge. We're good. And most people, especially, I'm gonna say most people never wake up and we just reiterate that eight first eight years over and over and over again, unless there is an awakening, which requires rewiring of the mind and possibly the spirit to align. But, so that was the first thing. The second thing I noticed that you said earlier in our conversation is that you're deeply connected to your body. And so I heard you say, I know I'm alive because I can feel my toes. So just another piece of evidence of how deeply connected you are to your body. And I don't know that everybody feels that way. So can you speak a little bit in, into what does that mean? What does it look like right now? How do you know you're deeply connected and is there a practice that, or does it just feel like, oh, I've always been and always will be? Yeah there's so many layers to this story. But what is something that I've actually been finding out, like within the past, like couple years, is that I am very clear sentient meaning that my body is like a filter for all the feelings and emotions in the world. And I had a an inner child journey recently where because I was working on trying to be a channel for people and there was some sort of subconscious block. And what I found out in that journey is that little Siri actually shut her gifts down because it was so overwhelming. And I think even the anxiety that I was actually feeling as a child wasn't even mine. And to just witness that like this is, of course, I would shut down, right? This is overwhelming. It's too much. Like I don't wanna take this on in the world. But then it also leading me to where I am now, to where I can actually feel what the world is feeling. And that actually makes me a better facilitator because. I know what it feels like. So with that, and I think that our body is always speaking to us, right? And it's whether we are connected to it, right? Like when you think about getting a tummy ache, right? Even as a kid why did you get the tummy ache? Probably because you fed your body with something it didn't love, potentially, right? Or, when we're feeling like this heaviness in our shoulders, what is it? Everything's a metaphor, right? Like when the world is sitting on our shoulders and we're feeling that, okay, that's a metaphor. Let's take a look at what's actually sitting on your shoulders. What are you holding that is really heavy right now. And so it's really important, and I teach this to all of my clients to really start to feel into those somatic. Alerts that are happening. And I think everybody's capable of it, but nobody really teaches this as children. And so unless you have, your hippie dippy grandmother or spiritual mom or things like that it's probably not something you're being taught your mom who loves Louise Hay. Yeah. The body keeps the score. This is such a big book and this is where all so many emotions are held, right? There's a reason why we de develop certain diseases in certain places. And the it's all information, it's all feedback. And what do we wanna do with it? Can you speak into, this is a really actually pretty graceful segue. You spoke into your experience. So my whole family almost is in, is also their medical doctors. And so very well-trained, highly specialized, very brilliant women in medicine. And I'm over here mind, body, spirit. And there's a connection between your stomach ache and you feeling powerless in the world and like your left hip is representing some feminine things that you're holding, we're ready to release. And they're like, what are you talking about? But the limitations and listen, I'm not gonna talk any smack about Western medicine because I think that there is a time and place for everything, but you nailed it. It misses the holistic nature of the human and the spirit having an experience together. So this misalignment between mind and body and. Spirit manifesting in the human 3D form via. An ear ache or some sort of, cancer or anxiety or whatever, and all of that, being so intricately connected with what's happening in your subconscious mind, which remember is like a locker that has every single thing that's ever happened in your experience, whether you were paying attention or not, it's all there. Plus this question of are you connected to the spirit of the fucking universe? Because if you're not, then there's a huge block. You've forgotten who you are. And I found we, we just had a panel this morning on shame. And the antidote to shame is very much spirituality. It's remembering that it's, you're not alone. Just like you said, you're not alone. You're connected to something way beyond. Maybe you're not willing to call it something fancy like God or Buddha or whatever, or some name that some human made up. But can you feel the beating of your heart? And remember that you're not the one beating it. Yeah. Can you stop your breath? You can't. So this remembering, and I'll stop here, is this. Just this awakening to when we're disconnected, mind, body, spirit. Then there's gonna be a di disconnection in the field as well. And then it will show up in panic, in diabetes, in whatever it is. So can you speak a little bit, I see you nodding. I know Joe Dispen aligns with this work as well. So let's go here. Yeah, let's go here. Speak a little bit into MINDBODY spirit connection. And also I wrote this in quotes down. I was like, oh, you're fine. So it's everyone's favorite phrase and we use it against each other. Like, how are you, oh, I'm fine. And then you go to a professional and based on their training, you are fine. You're fine. So I'm flagging this word fine as we really need to be done with that and be more specific. So go wherever you want, but MINDBODY spirit, let's dig in a little deeper there. What's your experience? Oh my gosh, so much. So much. I feel like we could talk, sit here for hours. Number one, yes, the fine. I hate that. And now when people like ask me how I'm doing, I'm like, that's a loaded question. You really want the answer, right? Do and why are you asking how you're doing? Do you really wanna fucking know? Do you really want to know that like the shit storm that happened today or that I'm fucking feeling fantastic, right? Like why is fine the answer? I think that's a great question and I think it should be a rhetorical question that the listeners just think about. As far as when you are talking about, your heart beating on its own, us taking breaths on our we are not thinking about it. It's happening, right? And Joe Dispenza, this is what really resonated for me, his stuff is part science, part spiritual. And at the time I couldn't believe in the spiritual, like that was way too left field for me. But the science that he was sharing, right there is a cross connection of the two. And he talked about this energy being an intelligence, right? So if we even just close our eyes for a second and think that our body is really intelligent and if it is so intelligent to the fact that it's creating this, our heart to beat and oxygen to be delivered through our nose or mouth, into our lungs, sent to the blood and to every cell, right? That's an intelligence system. Yes. And nothing is running What? What is running that, right? That's the question, what is running that? And so I think that really opened a doorway for me to start to think of what is running that? There has to be some sort of energy And he talks a lot about like when you take your leftovers from the night before and put'em in the microwave and hit, two minutes and hit start, you know that your food cooks, but are you seeing anything actually cook it? So there are these waves that are happening that we can't see, right? Like why do we turn the radio to a certain dial and then magically we get a radio station? So in that same way, it started being able to attune myself of, okay, if I just put my energy and my attention on this thing, I can't see, but it has to be there because it's making my heartbeat. Yeah. If I given an intention, like love or freedom for me was my word. You start to feel it and it starts to connect with you. And the energy that you're sending out is the energy that you're getting back in. And so that was, when I say I was really scared of death when I started meditating and I was getting into these really blissed out states, mainly just because I was like trusting that there's some sort of energetic intelligence there and that I was telling it that I wanted freedom and I was surrendering that freedom to it in hopes that it will give it back to me. And so in these really blissed out states, I remember thinking like, if this is what death is, I'm okay with it because this feels really beautiful. And so I think that right there, like what you were asking before, what is the thing. That needed to be shone. The light on was this massive distrust in that my body is finite and nothing's going to happen. It when it does decide to stop. So fear of non-existence, fear of the ultimate disconnection, the ultimate separation, which is non-existence. And I'm just not willing to subscribe to that. It just makes no sense to me. And when I check in with my body and my spirit and my mind, they all three say, that's not it. When I am experiencing the truth, my body gets a sensation, it feels like light. My mind comes online and my spirit's very happy. They're like, yeah, of course. Of course. We live forever. Whatcha talking about? There's plenty of time. Slow down. Be with the sparkle in your daughter's eyes. Be in the presence of your own breath. Just be here now. Yeah, I wanna speak to the power of meditation because in at least my recovery program, movement experience, it's not non-negotiable. And it's been the thing that has opened the aperture for more access to divine mind, spirit of the universe, whatever we're calling it today, she doesn't care what we call it, by the way, just in case you wanna change a name, sometimes I'm like, Hey Dolly,'cause it's Dolly Parton that day. But the vehicle for connection and remembering that I am a wave in the ocean, which means I can't jump out the ocean because I'm a wave, which means I am the ocean is meditation. It's also prayer. But since you brought up meditation, can you speak into the power of meditation in your own experience and then the benefits that you've experienced as a result? Yeah, this is important for hypnosis too. So what happens when we start to meditate? Okay our brains again are in brainwave states, right? So when I was in massive fight or flight, I was in really extreme high beta, which is a pretty fast brainwave state. It is lighting you up. You are, you can run from that lion, right? Like you have the oh shits. This is what I'm doing. And when we start to meditate, we start to slow those brainwaves down and we go into alpha theta or delta or gamma states. And in hypnosis, the same thing is happening. And when we slow down that's when like the quiet starts to happen. But it's not even so much quiet, right? Like we can have meditations where our thoughts are racing, but in a creative way because alpha brainwave states are actually a really creative state. And that if you were in a classroom and somebody was giving a lecture and you're probably just like dozing off and not really caring, and then they're like, okay, we're gonna have a test on this. You would all of a sudden go into Alpha because now you're ready to receive from the world. But in Alpha, you also have one step in the subconscious as well. So it's a really fun playing field. So whether it's meditation or hypnosis, this is when the quiet starts. And I, when we're in fight or flight, or I'm sure every mom has been forced to see inside out the movie. And I think it's such a beautiful picture and I think Disney is fucking genius for coming out with it because it really does play the role. One, one of my first courses I ever launched was called, find the goddess within and the goddess was that inner voice, right? Like our highest self spirit. God, there's, again, so many words that you could put on it, but I always say she's always in there. It's just that all the other parts and the characters that are running around in your mind, they all want their microphone and they're all like, give it to me. I wanna talk. I'm gonna say, what's going on right now? And in reality, the goddess or God or spirit, or your highest self, whatever that is, it's in there. But we have to turn up the dial. We have to listen to it. And that's, to me, like what slowing down our brainwaves and getting into meditation or our hypnotic journey is what gives her platform to speak. She's the voice behind the noise. Yes. Which means in meditation, my experience is the same and hypnosis, which I try, this is my year of hypnosis. Interestingly enough, maybe that's why the universe was like, oh here's another gorgeous hyp test. Let's do it. It is that when I am accessing the stillness, then the metaphor you use is so beautiful. She gets the mic and the speaker's turned not all the way up because she never screams. She's not a screamer. She's very much like a simple. Word or phrase or direction accompanied in my experience by a feeling. It's a specific feeling. When I know my intuition is speaking, when I know the divine goddess has stepped forward and the noise of all the other parts of the life are just like, okay, we'll be back. But right now we're all just gonna sit crisscross applesauce and listen to the divine goddess and what she has to say. Yeah. S share with us in our final few moments, share with us about the work that you do in the world and how you see it being a vehicle for positive change for women in recovery. Yeah. I'm going to do that and I also want to jump back to one thing that I said that I would explain more on was when I was talking about how I would have panic attacks in the car and I'd play this picnic game with my sister, and why this distraction helped me and calm down. That helped because. There's when we have a thought, right? That we're all addicts to some degree, right? We have a thought and that thought produces a feeling or an emotion, and it usually sends this like chemical signal down to our adrenals, lighting up that cortisol usually, and then your body's I want more. And so then it has another thought and it does the same thing over and we just go through this cycle over and over, and that was my anxiety. So when we stop it, Dana, I'm assuming that you probably know this, but do you know how long it takes for those chemical emotions to leave your body? I can't remember. Is it like an hour? If they stay in there for 90 minutes? Girl, it's 90 seconds. Oh good. Oh good. If you just give them space to feel, right? Yeah. If you feel them and then allow them to go 90 seconds. So the reason why that picnic game worked was because. Within, 90 seconds to 120 seconds, like all of a sudden those chemicals were gone and I was calm, right? And I teach this with breath, I teach this with different ways with my clients, and this was again, like the tools that I was searching for now, why a counselor did not give me just like a simple breath tool. I don't know. And maybe it was just my journey I needed to live to get to where I am right now. But that is like the first thing that every single client I have, like before you leave me, you're gonna have a big, old heavy tool bag full of all the things, and you're not gonna need me anymore because I've empowered you to show up for yourself. Wow. Yes. Via the tools that you already have, like your breath, like knowing your, like tuning into other voice. Connecting. Yes. So yeah, I, and again, I would say that the people that come to work with me, they're. Not that they have to be at their rock bottom, but they are because number one, for a lot of people, hypnosis is very woo. And I am a, I'm gonna present radical honesty to you, and I'm only doing that because I can, I'm literally witnessing your blueprint of possibility in your face right now. But I can tell you that till you're blue in the face, you have to want to experience it. And so much of hypnosis is a trusting and an allowing process that if you're not ready to open that Pandora's box and to see what's in there, you are gonna jump ship real quick. And it's not because of anything I did, it's gonna be because you just weren't ready. And that's okay. It's the same Siri in recovery. It's also why, unfortunately, most people that walk in the doors of a recovery community have no other option because it doesn't feel sexy to go in and be like, I need help with whatever the issue is. And I think that there is a gorgeous beauty in the desperation and the crack that it opens of willingness to try whatever it is. And so what a beautiful window of grace to have and then to connect with you. But there does have to be a willingness. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. And like I, I can spot'em a mile away, there's a timidness of I don't even wanna step into her field and that's okay. And I'm holding space for the day that maybe they do decide that they want that or that it's with someone else. Rapport's a big thing when, and change is, can I feel safe? Going into the dark dungeons of my subconscious. And I hope that I give that to people, but it is a willingness because I'm gonna make you feel, but I'm gonna make you feel so that you can actually tap into the badassness that you actually are. Yeah. Remember a remembering of who you actually are. I love this idea of the blueprint. You are a seer of, the blueprint of the person in front of you is limitless possibilities. Yeah. And the question is, are they ready to see that for themselves? And so for women in recovery, it sounds like they would benefit from a session with you, an experience with you as a hypnosis in general because number one, even in recovery, right? We're. We're going into recovery because we're stuck in a pattern, right? And all the subconscious is rewiring your patterns and allowing the neurons within your mind, right? With neuroplasticity and neuroplasticity, if you don't know what that is, I'm assuming maybe Dana's talked about this before, right? Is where we actually have the ability to prune and establish new neural synaptic connections. And so that's what subconscious rewiring is, and you are also not the identity of whether it's your right. I said we're all addicts, but we're not the identity of our addiction, whether it's chemical, whether it's emotional, whether it's physical. And that can be changed if you're ready to change. And yes, to me, talk therapy is amazing. But unless there's some sort of subconscious work happening, it's like trying to take a teaspoon to move a mountain. And I've seen so many things just happen within a 20 minute journey and somebody's subconscious journey that I'm just like, why isn't everybody doing this? And it's do you know, we gotta get you on Emily Fletcher's, why isn't everybody doing this podcast? Because you guys are having a fantastic conversation about this. Yeah. Yeah. I truly feel and also when you're adding subconscious work to the process, it helps with the integrating, right? Because if we are only 5% of our minds, like actually consciously able to make these choices, then no wonder why the next day you actually go back to being the old version. But when we have subconscious work. We've created more of an awareness to where when you show up the next day, you're like, do I actually wanna make that choice today? You're actually asking the question versus it just being, the body's no, let's go back to the same version. The standard, the following, the standard wired path. And now we're creating a new path. It's, I'll give an example that's pretty recent. My husband and I were having a little bit of a hard time and I had an interesting conversation with a hypno I'm an experienced with a hypnotherapist and then with a friend of mine and I decided, okay, we're gonna be doing some rewiring because I'm not trying to leave my husband. I love him and I'm just have the, I've trained the wires in the wrong direction. And so I did a session and then consciously, I use this wand as a part of my practice and it's the representative of being awake and aware, which again, is less than 10% of the time, unless you're really intentional. And then rewiring the, what I'm choosing to focus on and give energy to. And it's been very powerful. I'll just leave it there and keep it short. And so the way that I see this in our community is whether you have short-term recovery or long-term recovery, hypnosis has, is, has benefits for any, anything. Anything, money, relationships, love marriage, health in any area in your life that you're not exactly where you wanna be. And you're like, I've tried all the things and none of it's working and what is happening? I would absolutely recommend this as a next step. And it sounds and I'll just say this, it's, it is a holistic practice because if you can get into the subconscious, you've immediately accessed mind and body and spirit because they all reside there. Yeah, absolutely. And I'm going to force you to. Not only just access your mind, but experience and share what your body is feeling in that process so that the two can start talking. Because if they're not talking and we're just living, this full headed from the shoulder up, like what about the rest of our body? And our body is the subconscious mind, right? This is where all of the information is. Yes. And you can know what's happening in your subconscious just by looking at what your life looks like right now. It's it's pretty simple. So if you are, if body's in great shape, you're probably doing okay. If your bank account's in great shape, you're probably doing okay. If there's something that's a little awry, then there's something going on internally that's living in the subconscious mind that presents as could be many things. A block of misbelief, a false belief. And in my one of the sessions it came up that I was using the thing I was having an issue with as a a punishment for self punishment. And I just had this awakening like, oh, okay, now we don't have to do that anymore. But I didn't even realize that was what was happening until I was in subconscious, until we were in subconscious state. Can't recommend it enough. Sir. Tell us in our last couple of minutes together what your life looks like right now, and then how we can find you and work with you. My life. Is still absolutely a messy human. Let me just preface that, but messy in a beautiful painting sort of way. And it feels full, it feels radiant, it feels when I get to do things like this, like it just inspires me. And same thing when I work with my clients. Like I know that I'm doing my part in the world, right? And again, this isn't me being the fixer, but it's me. When we're, when you think of the domino effect, right? Like each person, including myself, when we start to allow the light to shine even more, it's just, it's making the light brighter all through the world. And that's all I want to do. And so I'm so happy that, number one, I'm not like grinding into a salon filled gossip. Place anymore. And I am energetically feeling amazing and listening to that and honoring it. And yes, I still have a life with two daughters, a husband and a house, and life is chaotic and crazy and I run through my own shit, but like it's a mirror for everything I am working through and my clients are working through and that the journey's never over. We are continuing to evolve and grow and sometimes we revisit old patterns and sometimes we're like, damn, I feel fucking amazing. It's just, it's beautiful and to take it and it's fullness. If people are interested in hearing more about what I do or you just feel like hell yes, let's start right now. I get a free freedom roadmap session, which is where we actually, I look at that blue blueprint and we really discuss what is. Maybe that addictive thing in your life that's protecting you, that's keeping you safe, that isn't allowing you to live to that fullest potential. And yeah, really just create that roadmap. And then I also just wanna preface too, that I'm not a one shot session girl. There's a commitment here, and the commitment isn't, to me, the commitment is to your greatness. Yes. Yes. Because holistic healing doesn't happen in a one stop shop, right? It's a process. It's a learning and an unlearning, and a becoming and an unbecoming. And I'm so glad that you are in leadership in what I'm gonna call a movement to accessing our higher self. So Siri, thank you so much. If you love her as much as I do, I'm gonna put all the ways to connect with her and grab yourself a session, and I hope that you'll open your heart. And receive this. Remind Siri, I love you so much. I'm so grateful for you. I'm really freaking proud of you, and I believe in your ability to create a life you love so that you could do the same for women everywhere. Wow. Thanks for being here. Thank you. This has been amazing and you're Thanks for attracting me to you as well, Dana. The universe is everything. Oh, whoa. Did you just feel what I felt? There is a whole lot of that and more to help you create miracles in your life. On upcoming episodes of the Girls Who Recover a podcast now ranked in the top 5% of podcasts globally. If you've built a strong recovery foundation and you're feeling ready to break through life's glass ceilings, let's make it happen together. In the show notes, you'll find a link to book a free one-on-one conversation with me and in that conversation. We'll get clear on what next level success even looks like for your life. We'll create some powerfully aligned goals and a plan. We're gonna talk about the big thing holding you back, and you will walk away with a roadmap for how to create a life you are obsessed with. Because hear this from me, my friend. You deserve. Success and freedom and the full identity of a woman who knows what she's capable of and who she is. And I wanna help you get there. So book your free call in the notes. And if you love this episode, follow us five stars, write a review, share it with your best friend, share it with your mom. And in case you haven't heard it today, I love you. I'm so proud of you, and I believe in your ability to create a gorgeous life. You are madly in love with starting. Right now and I'll see you in the next episode, blah.