Somatic Awareness and Leadership

Leadership isn't just a mindset—it's a nervous system practice. Join us as we explore how somatic awareness builds the capacity to navigate stress, cultivate presence, and lead with intention in every area of life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

This is the Global Podcast Network, where executives and professionals connect, share, and inspire. Stay tuned for the conversations that drive success.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

We are back with Cynthia Pyle. Excited she's here, and she's the founder of Thri Frameworks, which is a holistic studio. Really, it focuses on so much meditation, yoga, somatic healing, Reiki, sound therapy, you name it. She does it. We're excited to have her here today to talk more about Thri Frameworks. And again, that's the name of the company. And we'll get to know her if you haven't yet. Uh, talk more about her retreats, about her studio. And let's discuss overall wellness, right? And how it should be more of an everyday type word. And we all should be experiencing wellness inside and out on a daily basis, not just every now and then. So, Cynthia, you look beautiful today. Welcome to the show. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Thank you so much for having me, Jill. It's a pleasure to be here, and I'm excited to have this conversation about why wellness truly matters.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Absolutely. Before we get started to get into wellness, it's always important to tell our audience about you, uh, share a little bit of yourself, your journey, and how you got here into a Thrive.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

Absolutely. So I um spent 15 years working in the federal government as a human resources strategist and then moved into conflict resolution as a federal mediator. And the whole time I was uh moonlighting as a yoga instructor. So I I guess I just ended up naturally or organically resourcing myself with yoga, meditation to help me meet the high demands of my federal career. And I was able to bring both of those disciplines together, the mindfulness aspect, and really allow it to be foundational in how I built my life, I built my career, and I supported my clients. And so ultimately I decided to build my own business and start delivering those services directly to my own clients through Thrive Frameworks. I have this beautiful studio here in DuPont Circle in Washington, DC. And um the rest is kind of still being written.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Beautiful. Well, I know you mentioned you really describe uh this as a space between therapy and traditional wellness that you offer. And we're excited to have you here to discuss more, you know, about the work you're doing and of course about wellness and how it should be access to our fingertips all day and night, right? So amazing background and credentials, by the way, with all you've done and to continue working. And did you actually retire from the government? You're so young. Um, but you have a lot of years of experience there.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

No, I I have um I do have a lot of years of experience. I have not yet retired. I like to think of it as a transition, right? So my focus was on um public service, right? And so now it's around community development. And so it's more so of a pivot than it is a retirement, but I also have to give credit to my mom for the good genes that she passed down to me because I'm I'm in my 40s.

SPEAKER_02 3:36

So oh my goodness, I'm 48. I you look like half my age at least. So God bless you. God bless mom. Oh my goodness, good for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Well, you however, I did learn recently that yoga and meditation produces collagen. So there's likely a through line there. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Well, thank you so much, Cynthia. All right, so let's begin for today. I know you want to focus on this wellness experience. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Well, so the foundational reason why I started this business is because I came to the realization that wellness is not just something that's nice to have. It's not an atta boy or an at a girl. It is foundational to how we build our lives. Um, I believe it is the reason why we either struggle or experience challenges in things that we face in the workplace, interpersonal conflicts, relationship conflicts. Um, all of these things can be traced to chronic stress, and that's the symptom, right? And then burnout, disconnection, and ultimately underneath all of that is unmet human needs. So there's a psychological element that is also the through line of my work is and how to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, how to mitigate the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn response that we all that is just part of our neurobiology and we all experience on some level or another. And it's not about pushing through discomfort, it's about um learning the language of the body and learning how to work with that discomfort to your advantage as a strategy rather than a band-aid.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Hmm, interesting. And how are we doing this? I mean, you also you are you a Reiki um master or practitioner?

SPEAKER_01 5:29

I am a Reiki master. Um, I have uh I I have Reiki is actually one of my favorite uh disciplines. Go-to's okay aspects of my of how I deliver services to clients. Um, I incorporate acupressure. So most people are familiar with acupuncture, with actual needles, but what I do is I essentially use my hands to massage different pressure points, and then I use the breath and yoga, we call it prana, we call it energy, it's our energy source. Um, it's also in um Taoism, it's called qi. And so I'm using my breath to open um energy centers in the body, the same way a needle in accu puncture would uh sort of open and allow more space for those energy centers. I'm just using my hands, um, massage, pressure points, and the breath.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Beautiful. All right, thank you for that, Sharon. Because I was gonna ask, well, how are we? How should we be getting reset? Explain to us the process of Thrive Frameworks and you know how you get people uh, you know, really, I should say, reset in a sense.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, the access point um is usually through it's a couple of different ways. Um, it could be through a traditional yoga class where we do um vinyasa, downward-facing dog, and all of those postures that are familiar to most people. It could be through a sound healing. Um, sound healing is another one of my favorite modalities for therapy. Uh, I've heard from clients that they often feel that they struggle with meditation, right? They struggle to quiet their mind, they struggle to focus on the breath. But the actual ringing of the sound bowls, because it's somatic, it's connected to your um your senses. So what you hear, you can feel the vibration of the bowls. And through the those first two pillars of what do I see, what do I hear, what do I feel, those are the three pillars. So we'll start. We start with what do you feel and what do you hear? And then as the session goes on, people are able to quiet the noise and actually hear their higher self and activate that self-leadership that's so important for decision making and often gets silenced or overwhelmed because of cognitive overload.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Interesting. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. There's a lot to you if you are tuning in. Cynthia Pyle here. Yes, you are right. We're talking Yoga and Wellness Center. This is Thrive Frameworks. Uh, she's based out of Maryland Silver Springs, which actually, well, it's really uh how do I say it's DC? It that was confusing.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

The DC metro area, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

This video is actually in DuPont Circle.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

DuPont Circle, that's what I was looking for. Thank you so much. So yoga meditation, Reiki, sound therapy. There's so many things that she can help you with. And uh let's continue. I want to hear more about the services and how people can get uh you know into you for their energy resets. Because I also was reading, uh, if you don't mind me jumping the gun, but there's also in your can I call you an intuitive? Are you um an empath? Is the word I'm looking for?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, I am. I am an intuitive empath. Um, and that's a big aspect of the healing work that I do. Um, I'm just I listen. Um, I have worked really a lot with my own inner guide. Um, and that is when I'm working with a client and I'm um determining uh which energy centers might need more attention or which um sound bowl to use, right? Because there's seven different sound bowls all connected to the seven chakras of the body. So I'm really locked in, I'm really connected with my clients when we're working together, and I'm feeding off of their energy, I'm reading their energy essentially, um, and that guides me into how best to support them, like where I go next, essentially, with the session.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Got it. All right. Well, for today, uh wanted to also uh remind everyone you can reach out to her. I also saw you on social media as well, and we can find you under its Thrive Um uh Frameworks, correct? On Facebook, Instagram, what are the forms of contact?

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Um Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I'm building my YouTube platform as well. Ah, tell us more about that. Well, um, it has been the easiest way for my corporate clients to get a taste, an appetizer, if you will, of my services. So quick three to five minute videos of me teaching a chair yoga class or doing a sound healing is an easy link that I can send to my corporate clients so that they can, you know, um discern whether or not my services are gonna be beneficial to their employees because a big element of like I love working with my individual clients.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

I was gonna say, but corporate wellness that's a whole nother thing. Ah nice.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

I love working with my uh individual clients, um, but there is also a need on a more like macro scale, and I have a real with my background in human resources, I just um am naturally inclined to want to help organizations in a more systematic way.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Awesome. Thank you for sharing. All right, there's still so much more to talk about. Thrive. Go ahead, I'll let you speak. Where are we going to next?

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Well, I also just kind of wanted to touch base about, you know, sometimes the biggest lessons that we receive are not necessarily they come from hardship, right? And so it's a signal. We don't necessarily, you know, you end up um we used to call them nervous breakdowns. I don't know what they're I don't know what the PC term for them is now, but there is some type of breakdown, right? You have to take a step back from work, you have to um maybe push some projects to the side, and that's all data. That's something that we should be paying attention to and being responsive to, and not just um chalking it up as like par for the course or just a hard season or you know, part of part of life. Um what my goal with Thrive is is to help individuals develop the tools, mindsets, and support systems that are necessary for them to do their greatest thinking, for them to resource themselves with micro micro regulation, if you will, to allow them to have macro stabilization in the workforce and in their lives. So it's it's it is a systematic approach. Um, and it's not la one and done, it's a practice. It's something that I always like to, you know, that saying practice makes perfect. I like to flip that on its head and say practice makes permanence. Because again, if we're thinking about, yeah, practice makes permanence because it if we're thinking about it from a neurobiological perspective, those are neuropathways, is what they're called. So it's like a a neuropathway is like um a super highway. If you think about it like the autobond, so we just have a default response, we always go to this one thing, it happens so fast that we're not even really aware all of the time that that is what's driving our decision making. And what I love about these tools and these practices that I bring to the workplace is that it kind of is a little intervention, if you will. It's a little, it's a little off-ramp from that autobottom, right? And it allows you to make a choice that actually strengthens the brain. The brain likes to be challenged, it likes to use new neuropathways that creates more gray matter in the brain and it makes the brain healthier. Um, especially if we're thinking about like dementia, cognitive decline later on in life. Like the brain does need those um those pivots in order to be able to be agile. And what I love about it is that I just get to offer that in such a um intentional way to my clients.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Beautiful. Well, thank you so much. And clearly, um, let me ask, what would you say sets you apart, right? For people to come to Thrive who are interested in, you know, somatic healing, meditation, Reiki, sound therapy. Tell me what would you say what makes you unique, Cynthia?

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Oh, well, that's a really great question. Um there are a few things. Um, I think one of them is just my passion for it. Um I started practicing yoga 20 years ago before it was as popular as it is now. And I used yoga to help me get through the most difficult seasons of my life. Um, it taught me the language of the body and I understand it fluently. And so it's not just a fad for me, it's it's personal because I personally went through the fire. Uh in in yoga, we call it tapas uh fire. It creates that burn, that burn um that you have to push through that discomfort, right? And um, so that that is, you know, from a personal standpoint, the passion that I have and the and the the data, the empirical evidence that I've collected over the years to support this work um really create set me apart. And then it is kind of neat that I used to be a federal mediator because I understand conflict, um, I understand what's happening in behaviors, I understand what are the behaviors that break down trust, and I understand the behaviors that build trust, and I understand the impact on our nervous system when those things are not working optimally. So I can really go into organizations and give them a bird's eye view of what's happening from a professional standpoint as well as from a holistic standpoint.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

All right, thank you for that. And did you want to describe some of the techniques that you're working with? And I want to hear some client stories, and you know, uh, yeah, I'm I just to be honest, because I'm I'm looking at the the word somatic, right? And I know that's part of the work you do when people talk about somatic healing. Could you just share what exactly does that mean? And how are we, you know, supporting the nervous system with sound healing?

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Well, so somatics is basically essentially what you see, what you hear, and what you feel.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Thank you. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

What you see, what you hear, and what you feel, and the sound therapy, one element of that is what do you hear? The different notes. There's seven seven different notes to the sound holes. Um, and all seven of them coordinate with a different chakra point, a different energy point. And if I can just kind of take a step back, because I think sometimes the Eastern language and the Eastern philosophy can put some people off. Um, but really what we're talking about, everything is energy, everything is matter, right? We are here because of a star that exploded, right? And then created matter. So if we if we look at science to support this, then then the evidence is already there. Um, it's just a different, it's just a different language that we're using to describe energy. And so, I mean, even if you think about um sound frequency, right? It can be measured. There are measurement tools that can measure sound frequency, but we can't see it. But just because we can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there and doesn't mean it isn't powerful.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

So that is sound therapy. I I mean I could go on and on about sound therapy, but um also so the somatics is you know, the acupressure, um, the breath work, um, noticing the coolness of the air as you inhale through the nose, and noticing the warmth of the breath as it leaves the body. That is somatic awareness. And what I teach my clients is you can have micro regulation that will over time and through practice, not perfection, practice can create more macro stabilization for your life, for your career, for parenting. I mean, we haven't even talked about yet how, you know, I really do all my clients are women. All my clients are women, and so this is data as well that sort of suggests that women are disproportionately affected by stress, burnout, chronic fatigue. Um, we're forced to hold so many different hats. We have to be caregivers, we have to be mothers, we have to be wives, we have to manage the house, we have to perform at work, at you know, the same level as individuals who may not be carrying the same load at home. And it would be, and it really is my honor to be able to serve specifically women. Um and I what I if I could drive one thing home, um, it would be that there is a cost to neglecting and ignoring wellness. There is a cost. You may not see it immediately, but over time it just breaks down the body. That's why you get sick all the time. That's why, you know, um you might start having to um all of a sudden now you have high blood pressure and you don't know where it came from and it doesn't run in your family, right? And so this is why um why wellness matters so much to me. And I it's just it's not something that we reward employees with, it's not something that we we reward ourselves with. Oh, here's a gift card for a massage, or here's a day off to you know, rest or relax. It really is foundational to success, both professionally and personally.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for sharing that. And we still got um four more minutes left in the show, plenty more time to talk. What else do you think is important for everyone to, you know, really um, you know, get through today? Some of us just don't feel well. I mean, let's be honest. Some of us, I find self-care is is a big thing. We don't give too much uh thought into it. We're always doing for others, always doing. How would you you describe this to someone out there? Because everything that you do uh affects your body, affects your life, right? And how would you give us some advice on how we can start taking better care of ourselves?

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah. Um, that's a really great question. I would take us back to the conversation about neuropathways. Yes. And how were you just conditioned to do some depending on um the environment that you grew up in, depending on it? Could be, you know, you're you're in New York, I'm in DC. It could be cultural, right? Yeah, it could be regional, it could be um, you know, traits or or behaviors that were modeled for you as a kid. And um, but they're neuropathways, um, nonetheless. And a lot of times it's it's easier to just go with the default. It's easier to just hop on that Autobond. It's fast, right? And so we'll just do it ourselves, right? We it sometimes we you know no one can do it like we can. And so it's sometimes easier to just do it yourself instead of asking for help or support or creating boundaries. But unfortunately, what the cost of that, the cost of hopping on that auto bond and responding the same way that you always do, and not creating new neuropathways, is that you become disconnected from yourself. Um, so let's talk about this a little bit. Um, the opposite of wellness is not illness, it's actually disconnection. So that's we're talking about disconnection from our bodies, but also from our values. Like there, disconnection from your body is a real thing. It's called dissociation. Um, it's different than disassociation, it's dissociation. It's a it's a clinical term where you sort of have an out-of-body experience, like you really just can't even like when we're talking about somatics, like you can't even feel your body. Um, but we'll save that for a conversation for another day. Um, as that's a juicy one we can um dive into.

SPEAKER_02 23:33

I can't wait. Well, thank you so much. It's it's awesome having you here. I'm excited for those uh in your area to take part. Uh now, by the way, do you do any virtual services as well? Because isn't Reiki also virtual? I know it's hands-on stuff, you need to be in person, but tell us about that as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Absolutely. So the services are transferable to a virtual format. I just taught a chair yoga class earlier today. And um, one of the things that I love about chair yoga is that it's so accessible for people. Um, is you don't have to, you know, have all the workout gear. You don't even have to have a yoga mat. All you need to do is have a chair and a body. Um, so it really kind of like puts everybody on this even same plane, yeah. On the same plane, exactly. So um chair yoga is one of my um favorite services that I offer, and and it does translate really well to my corporate clients because you know they have big they're busy um and and it's easier to just hop on a Zoom. And then I'll do sound therapy that way as well. So I'll I'll bring the singing bowls. It doesn't have quite the same effect, but we can do a sound bowl virtually for sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Well, I'm excited because I know we have so many more sessions together, so we can bring some of these the modalities on. I would love to hear from some of your, you know, your uh clients. They can come on. I'd love to see the sound bowls and stuff too. But we this is fascinating. We have so much to work with here, and I'm excited that you're joining us for uh for quite some time. So let's move on to how we can contact you and reach out. And Cynthia, what would be the best form?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah, the best form is to just hop on my website. Um, it is thriveframeworks with a s.com. And you can connect with me through social media at Thrive Studio DC. And um, and all of my social links are there on my website. So the website really is just the hub, it's the landing page, if you will. Um, and you can find my YouTube and everything from there. Um, and I look forward to continuing the conversation.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

So do we. Thank you so much. You have a fantastic day, and we'll see you right back here next time. Hopefully, same place, same time. Same place, same time. I'll be here. Great, thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day, sweetheart. Pleasure working with you. Bye. Thank you. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

This is the Global Podcast Network, where executives and professionals connect, share, and inspire. Stay tuned for the conversations that drive success.