Empowered Ease
Welcome to Empowered Ease, hosted by Jenn Ohlinger—a holistic coach,
& founder of The Moonflower Collective. Join us each week as we delve into the transformative stories of healers, health practitioners, and everyday women like you, challenging the patriarchal framework through empowerment and holistic healing. Through engaging storytelling, our podcast highlights each woman's unique journey toward embracing their feminine gifts, trusting their body, and prioritizing their mind, body, and soul. Discover how by empowering ourselves, we can pave the way for stronger relationships and a more balanced world. Women heal in community come find yours.
Empowered Ease
Healing the Healers with Eva ZobianWolf
Hi!! I would love to hear from you!
When the hospital beeps follow you home and echo in your dreams, you know your nervous system has been fundamentally altered by your work. This was Eva ZobianWolfe's reality during her 25+ years in critical care nursing before she discovered the transformative power of adaptive yoga therapy.
In this deeply resonant conversation, Eva reveals the barely discussed truth about healthcare burnout – how the hypervigilance required to save lives creates a physiological state where true relaxation feels impossible, even threatening. "I felt like an angry shell of myself," she confesses, describing how burnout manifested in her relationships and wellbeing. This emotional honesty creates immediate connection with anyone who's experienced the crushing weight of compassion fatigue.
Eva's journey from bedside nurse to founder of Eva Z Wellness represents a radical reframing of self-care for healthcare providers. She exposes why traditional "treat yourself" activities provide only fleeting relief, while offering evidence-based alternatives that create lasting nervous system regulation. Her expertise in adaptive yoga therapy and mind-body wellness shines through practical suggestions like the Kirtan Kriya meditation, which research shows improves cognitive function even in dementia patients.
What makes this episode particularly valuable is Eva's holistic approach to healing. Beyond physical postures, she explores all eight limbs of yoga, including ethical principles that naturally support boundary-setting – something desperately needed in healthcare environments. Through personal anecdotes and professional insights, she illustrates how these ancient practices can help modern caregivers recover their joy and compassion.
Whether you're a healthcare professional fighting burnout or simply someone whose nervous system feels perpetually overwired, this conversation offers both validation and viable pathways forward. Listen now to discover how reconnecting with your authentic self might be the most radical act of healthcare you can provide – to yourself and those you care for.
You can find Eva at http://www.evazeewellness.com/ or join her Facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/selfcareisyourhealthcare
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Hello and welcome back to another episode of Empowered Ease, the podcast where we explore the intersection of health, wellness and women's empowerment. I'm your host, jen Olinger, and I'm thrilled to introduce another remarkable guest. My guest today is Eva Zobian-Wolfe. Her work is transforming the lives of countless individuals in the healthcare community. Eva is the founder and CEO of Eva Z Wellness. She's a true pioneer in the field of mind-body wellness.
Speaker 1:As a mind-body specialist, a nurse and an adaptive yoga therapist, eva has dedicated over two decades to helping chronically exhausted nurses reclaim their vitality and well-being. Through her personalized mindfulness plans and transformative sessions, she tackles chronic illness, pain and mobility challenges head-on. Eva's expertise spans a diverse range of modalities, including adaptive yoga therapy, reiki, and her approach has proven effective in reducing stress, boosting energy levels and enhancing sleep quality. Not only is Eva deeply committed to improving the health of those in her care, but she also actively volunteers with social advocacy groups, showing that her dedication to well-being extends far beyond her professional practice. So join me in welcoming our guest today, eva, to Empowered Ease. Well welcome, eva. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm great. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you for being here. I'm so excited to talk about all the awesome work you're doing and find out a little bit more about you. So I guess first, just like I gave you a good intro, but tell us, like, where you're located and your intro- Well, my name is Eva Zobian-Wolf.
Speaker 2:I am the founder of Eva Z Wellness. One of the reasons that I started this particular work is because I have been in the medical field for over 25 years. It sounds really weird when I say that. I'm like how is that possible? I'm not, I can't possibly be old enough to have that. I'm not that old. I'm not right, the math isn't mathing right now, but I've been in the medical field for over 25 years.
Speaker 2:Part of that was the entire time has been in pretty decent-sized hospitals, in pretty decent sized hospitals and in roles where I was involved in trauma responses, code responses, working in the ER, working in a neonatal intensive care unit, and I finished out the last 10 years as a nurse in a hospital here in San Antonio, texas.
Speaker 2:As in the ICU and the hospitals here are pretty large, we get a lot of patients from different areas around Texas, from San Antonio down towards the border and down into West Texas and one of the things I started to notice after a few years of working in the ICU was it wasn't me, and anybody that has experienced an extreme amount of stress and burnout can maybe recognize some of these aspects in themselves. I felt like a shell of myself, but it wasn't an empty shell. It was like an angry shell where I didn't have a lot of. You were a loving shell, yeah, I mean, I was very quick to be angry, but not so quick to be calm to be angry but not so quick to be calm and definitely not so quick to be happy.
Speaker 2:And I started looking for things that I could do for myself to bring more of that happy version of myself back into my life and to be, you know, a better wife, a better mom, a better friend, a better coworker. And with that I started pursuing yoga teacher training. It was something that I had been wanting to do for years, but I've had scoliosis since I was 12. I was in a back brace for 12 years or not 12 years, for like six years and I thought well, who's going to take yoga from somebody that some days can't even touch their toes right? There's days where I wake up and I'm in so much pain that I have a hard time standing upright, and I thought how do I teach a yoga class when this is a norm for me? And after taking yoga consistently for a few months, I started to see a different side of yoga from what I had seen before and I thought this is the type of yoga that I want to do and I want to find a mentor who will be with me for the rest of my life. And that part is really important, because the mentor that I found is one of my best friends and we talk regularly, we work together now, and so she had an adaptive, trauma informed curriculum that really focused in on the therapeutic benefits of yoga. Everything was rooted in how is this going to be beneficial, how is this going to be therapeutic, how is this going to help you, not just physically but mentally and spiritually, to be able to improve all the areas of your body and your mind and your spirit? And then one of the other things that I started doing was volunteering with different nonprofit organizations, and for about nine years I was medical support for a cycling organization that worked with veterans and first responders with PTSD. Eventually, I went through yoga teacher training and went all the way through yoga therapy training, which is more intense. You create treatment plans, you create a with the client. You're creating this holistic plan of what are the areas that you feel you need more in your life. Do you need more energy? Do you need more sleep? Do you need more joy? And then together we work on a plan where we're incorporating all of those aspects into your life.
Speaker 2:And when I started working with clients privately, I started seeing people improving their sleep, coming off of blood pressure medications, either being able to completely come off of pain medications or needing their pain medications so much less frequently, being able to space out their pain injections further and further apart, and all of these things were. You know, I'm not the one dictating how that's happening. That's a relationship they're having with their physician, but these are things that I've really noticed were missing when I was sitting in the ICU and at the the last, at the last moments of a person's life, and I'm watching all of the things that we're doing all the medications, all the drips, all the procedures, the CPR, the 24-hour dialysis machines, the ventilator, the complete care that they need when they have to be turned every two hours, and just the amount of suffering that's involved in that process. And what really got to me wasn't necessarily that that person was having to go through it. It was watching the people in the room with them and thinking this isn't a product of a disease. This is a product of I'm not knowing not knowing how to listen to their body, not knowing how to feed their body, not knowing how to nourish their energy, not knowing that a lot of the things that are just thrown out into our world aren't always beneficial for us, and a lot of us don't question that and my thought was what would happen if somebody had a conversation you know, of course, outside of the ICU, because in the ICU you're stressed and that's not a time for those conversations.
Speaker 2:But what happened if somebody had this conversation and offered different choices that were more specific to you? What do you need? What's going to make you happy, what's going to make you healthy? And how would that change the trajectory of the timeline, the storyline for not only one person, but for an entire family. And that's something that I've seen with a lot of my students where, instead of reprimanding children, they're saying okay, you can have whatever temper tantrum you want to have, but before you can do that, you have to take. You know, if you're two years old, you have to take two big, deep breaths with two long exhales. If you're four years old, you have to take four breaths. And then hearing that the four-year-old is coaching the two-year-old on how to do those breathing habits, because it has become a habit for them now. So now, instead of, you know, having a hissy fit, they take a deep breath and then, mommy, I'd like a snack yeah, regulating your nervous system.
Speaker 1:Yes, like this regulative, I relate so much. You said so much stuff there that I can relate to. I'm a critical care nurse myself. That's my history. I just actually this week is the first time I started a new job in 10 years outside of critical care and I'm like um leadership in a critical care setting. But it's my first time not being bedside and so I relate. And I just finished a contract where I was driving two hours to to it, so in 18 hour days I'm so much of what you said.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh my god, yes, and right before this episode for the listeners, we were talking about uh like driving in deer, uh like infested woods and like just your nervous system being on edge. So after you know, you're talking about critical care. I'm like.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah there's that.
Speaker 2:And that's just it. We have these patterns of being hyper vigilant. And for critical care nurses for all nurses, right, there's this amount of vigilance that our nervous system is. In critical care nurses I feel like it's another level. Er nurses are, you know, they've got so many patients, they're going in so many directions. I think they still have it and they have it a different way, and that's the same, really, for all different types of nursing. Critical care nurses. That's what I can speak to, because that's what I was, and so when we're talking about there's never.
Speaker 1:The gas pedal is never let off of in critical care is the thing I'll say. It's never like the other other departments, like there's an interview, not saying it like comparing, because there's worse things about med surgery. There's a reason I work in critical care, because I prefer it, so it's not all bad, but when it comes to the toll it takes on your nervous system, there's more sounds. I have a trauma therapist for myself and we a lot of times struggle to get to my rooted stuff because she says I have layers of micro trauma Just keeping some of the real trauma from being able to be processed sometimes because I have 10 years of spending the worst day of people's lives with them over and over again and it's an honor. I love that I did it. I can't even get away from it, even when I know I should, because it's not good for me, because I love it, but it's it takes a toll. We pay a price for that huge price.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. So I was teaching a. It was funny, I was teaching a class on neuroscience to yoga teacher trainers Say that again.
Speaker 1:I said that's. My specialty, by the way, is neuro, so I love everything neurology, psychology, neuroscience.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it, love it, love it. Yeah, and there's so much to it. And the interesting thing is what I've learned in yoga is so much more than I ever learned in school. I had a degree in physiology before I went to nursing school and I still learned so much more about this and the application of it than I did in nursing, which to me just is absolutely astounding.
Speaker 2:So I'm teaching this workshop of neuroscience to yoga teacher trainees and we're downtown and in a second floor building or second floor of a building, and there's a garbage truck backing up outside of the building, and then we've got the beep and the beep and the beep. And as I'm talking to the students, all of a sudden I just stop and my face glazes over and I'm zoned in on that noise. And then, when it finally stopped beeping, I turn and look at my students and they're all just looking at me like dumbfounded. They have no idea what was happening. And the irony here is that later that afternoon I was teaching a yoga class to a bunch of ICU nurses and I was explaining what had happened and in my mind when that I heard that beeping, all I could think of is where is that? What is it, how do I need to respond, who needs to be called and what do I need to bring?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm always trying to place it, you know, because it's like when I place it, I know what to do with it Exactly. And if there's a sound I don't know when I'm at work. Oh my God, I've never felt more out of control Because I'm like what is it? Where is it what?
Speaker 2:is it Exactly? And then what was funny is when I brought it up to the nurses and I said you know, this is what happened. Well, they, immediately before I even said anything, they went. Well, of course, you need to know what is it, when is it, who do you need to call? What do you need to bring those exact phrases?
Speaker 1:I just got done with a three-week break and it's like the sounds, like I hear them when I'm falling asleep and when I'm in the shower and I don't even notice until I take a break and they go away, like when I go on vacation, and I'm like, oh my God, it's constant. They're in my head constantly like all kinds of stuff. It's nuts.
Speaker 2:And like I'm wondering about the toll that takes too. You know, and the thing is that's a lot and if we go back to the HPA access and look at that the hypothalamic, pituitary adrenal access, and we look at that, it's actually a negative feedback loop. Look at that, it's actually a negative feedback loop. And so when we're in that hypervigilant stage all the time, it causes an over activation of the amygdala, it causes destruction to the hippocampus and it's continually dropping cortisol and adrenaline into the body, which we know we need all of those hormones. We need all of those chemicals in our body which we know we need all of those hormones. We need all of those chemicals in our body, but we don't need them in the amount that we are actually producing, which is why I don't know if do you work days or do you work nights.
Speaker 1:I worked well. I worked days, mostly Double.
Speaker 2:And this is happening on both both days and nights.
Speaker 2:Night shift has the added bonus of working on the opposite of their circadian rhythm, and so they're already dumping more cortisol and adrenaline into their body, which is causing this cascade of inflammation and destruction in the body.
Speaker 2:And then, on top of that, we have the hypervigilance, we have the continual stimulation of our sympathetic nervous system, and this shows up in when we're cranky, when we're tired, when we're overreactive. You talked about how you still hear the noises. The same thing I would come home from work in the morning, go in, take my shower, lay down in bed, blackout curtains are closed and I have it completely dark in the room, and then, as soon as my head lays down in the pillow, it's like there's a vent going off in the shower, and so I would always have to play some type of noise, something that was familiar enough that I didn't have to pay attention to it, but it was enough to drown out the noises of the unit that were still bouncing around in my head, and towards the end of me working at the bedside, it had gotten so bad I couldn't listen to music that had words in it, because it was just too much stimulation.
Speaker 1:That's funny because I listen to a lot of sound therapy that has no words, just tones A lot, but I never made that connection before. But now I'm like, oh, maybe, I mean I don't know if I have to pay more attention, I love that. So when you say adaptive yoga, I love that. I know more about, like adaptive sports than I do about adaptive yoga. So tell me a little bit more about adaptive yoga and what that is.
Speaker 2:So I kind of chuckle at this because and I talked with my mentor about this we always make the distinction that it's adaptive and trauma informed. And every once in a while we'll have these conversations and I'll say isn't yoga inherently adaptive and trauma-informed which it is. If you go back thousands of years to the original Vedic practitioners, this was all about a lifestyle and it was a specific to the practitioner lifestyle. What are the foods that you're eating? What are the clothes that you're wearing? How are you moving? What are you? What are you taking in? What's the environment that you're taking in? And there's a perception, and there's been a culture, especially here in the United States with yoga, that it's performative, that there's a specific posture that you need to achieve in order to develop that balance and in order to develop that inner peace. And, quite honestly, it's a bunch of bullshit.
Speaker 1:I love that you say that, though, because I can't like I've done. I've practiced yoga since I was really young, because it was. I got introduced to it in college sports. Our college trainer took us to a yoga class and I got addicted. So I did it like on and off for my whole life. But when I've told people about it that don't know about it, everyone's always like I'm not flexible, I can't touch my toes. It's like that doesn't even matter and like that's not the point. But that's what everybody says, and I love that you say that because I'm like that's everybody's answer.
Speaker 2:I'm like and that's more proof to do it, by the way, absolutely. I mean, I am living proof of that because with my scoliosis I've got an S curve in my spine and that was one of the things that led me in that direction is because when I practiced it consistently, but I had to start practicing it in a way that worked for my body, and that's where the adaptive component comes in. So I've really got two missions in my life. One is to help nurses and talk about practicing radical self-care and alleviating and preventing burnout, and the other is bringing yoga out into the world in a way that absolutely everybody can practice yoga. Because the thing is, if you're breathing, you can practice yoga. Because the thing is is if you're breathing, you're practicing yoga. It doesn't matter what the movement is, what's the favorite pose, corpse pose, where you just lay there.
Speaker 1:And that's the point of yoga is to get to corpse pose.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And the thing is, even in corpse pose it has its own inherent meaning and beauty to it, because the idea is that we are a different version of ourself every single moment.
Speaker 2:You know who we are now compared to when we first started talking is different than you know who we are a week ago, who we are a month ago.
Speaker 2:And the idea with Shavasana corpse pose is that you enter into the pose as one version of you, but that version dies and you rebirth as a different version of you when you come out of that pose, and the idea, hopefully, is that you come out of it knowing more about yourself, seeing more about yourself, having a better and deeper relationship with yourself, and you move out of that making choices that are more aligned with who you actually are. And so the purpose of yoga isn't to be able to wind yourself up into a pretzel shape or balance in crow pose. It's actually to be as close as possible to your deeper, authentic self, who you really are deep down inside. That maybe you only let a couple people see, or maybe even you yourself are completely unaware of, because we've got these layers, of layers that are thrown on us by the traumas that we experience all the all the experiences that we've had in our life, but the things that people say and expect of us that we accept right.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that are programmed when we're like real little and don't even know it.
Speaker 2:Exactly right. You know, I had a hairdresser once that I went in and she's like oh, you don't have bangs. You need bangs. You have a big forehead. You need to cover that big forehead. You need to have bangs. And I thought I didn't even know that I'm supposed to have bangs. I'm supposed to have bangs. Now I'm like who are you to tell me what to do with me? Right?
Speaker 2:And so it's those little things you know when people say like, oh, girls aren't supposed to do this, or you're not supposed to do this as you grow up, this or you're not supposed to do this as you grow up, these different roles or restrictions that people put on you.
Speaker 2:You go into yoga and you go through the mat and you go through the movements and the whole time you're learning about yourself, you're feeling, you're developing an awareness of what it feels like to be in the experience of your body and the movement in your body, and also, what does that feel like in your mind, what does that feel like in your nervous system? And starting to unravel that and find the places where, man, this really makes me happy. I should do more of this. I feel really heavy and not happy when I do these things. I should do less of this, and so it's a whole process of getting to know yourself deeper and deeper, and I think you know we do that inherently as we age.
Speaker 2:Hopefully, you know some of us are doing that as we age, where we're starting to think. You know we do that inherently as we age. Hopefully, you know some of us are doing that as we age, where we're starting to go. You know what I know more, I know better. I know what makes me happy. I'm going to do more of that, and the way that we do that also has to be kind to other people as well, like I can't be happy at the expense of somebody else's happiness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so how, I guess? How are you working with people now? I know you used to be bedside nurse and so are you teaching yoga like a hundred percent. Is that what you do?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm combining the two, so a lot of what I do is excuse me um. A lot of what I do is working with nurses in continuing education classes or in coaching that utilizes all the aspects of yoga, and then I'm also teaching.
Speaker 1:Okay, we had to pause. My husband is weed whacking and he got very close to my office and so I had to go out there and be like hey, don't come near my office. And then he started like rubbing the weed whacker. I'm like he's such a like, but he did walk away. So thank you. It is a huge job and he has very little time to do it and he works nights. So I'm like, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh Well. So I always find this funny, because whenever you know stuff like this happens, I always say I'm completely flexible, because if you can't have your yoga therapist be flexible, who can be flexible about it? Right?
Speaker 1:right and that's like you know. That's kind of I'm kind of going to get off topic here, but it's going to come back around is. That's kind of like the purpose of my podcast, if I'm being honest like one of the main purposes is kind of to challenge the idea that we have to do things in this very strict way, because I feel like all of my guests, you included, have found this way to do life, to do healing, to do to connect. That is your own and then you help most of my guests are facilitating that in other people and it's not about doing it your way Like I coach women through burnout too, and I don't coach people to. And it's not about doing it your way, like I coach women through burnout too, and I don't coach people to do it my way. I coach them to figure out their way and I love that and that's kind of like this.
Speaker 1:It's not this flexible, like this hard, rigid container that we're in that a lot of things have become. If we give things a little movement, we treat people like humans with human needs. I mean, of course, those boundaries are important. That's part of this. But you know, this is life, like you know. Anyway, I'm off topic, but that's kind of what you're doing too. You're encouraging people to do life their way with what works for them. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, because it's such an important component because that's some of the places where, especially in healthcare, where we have so many issues that nursing in itself is a flexible profession, right. So if we look at the procedures that we have been doing, medicine is constantly evolving. We do a practice until we have evidence that shows us that we should be doing it differently. However, what usually happens when a new policy, a new way of doing something, is introduced, everybody gets up in arms and thinks why are we doing something different? We've been doing it this way for how long? And it's been totally. It's been working fine. Why do we have to change the policy now?
Speaker 1:I think it's because it's one more thing and we're already juggling the. I mean, if you really consider it, if anyone ever sat down and actually wrote down all the expectations that a nurse has to uphold during her shift. It's not possible.
Speaker 2:But you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:It's just dropping one more thing on that bucket that's already overflowing and it doesn't matter if it's helpful. It just feels like a smack in the face when they ask that, sometimes because you're so overworked. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's the thing that right there is a symptom of an over-activated, over-stimulated nervous system, because the whole reason that we went into the profession was to be able to help people, and we wanted to help people in the way that they needed help. We wanted to be able to offer kindness and comfort and care, and not necessarily what we think it is, that they, that they know. However, one of the things that's going on in the medical system right now is we've got a lot of overstimulated nervous systems. And just just to highlight that, you've heard the, the, the phrase nurses eat their young before. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, it's actually shifting. At least it is in a lot of the places I've been and I see a lot of people pushing for it. But that was alive and well when I started.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Oh, yeah, I had. I had three different preceptors when I started in the ICU Two were phenomenal and one was a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. One moment, super helpful the next minute just bashing me left and right and speaking to me, in a way that I'm just sitting there looking at the person going. Really, this is what you think is going to be helpful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had this interaction early in my nursing career with um. I really respected her. She was a she was a nurse practitioner at the time and she was, I mean, she'd been like a trauma nurse and life, like I mean, she was like one of those people who went after a lot of years of doing a lot of amazing things. And, um, I don't remember what we got into it about, but I was like you don't have to approach people that way and she was like you need to thicken your skin if you're going to be in this environment. And I remember like I respected her so much, I was so upset she said that, because I'm like no, you don't, and if you keep treating people like that, there's not going to be anybody left. You know what I mean and what I love about this new generation is they just do not accept that bullshit, they do not accept being talked to that way and I'm like woo, holly, Right, Move on, Absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:I was having a conversation with somebody. She's a realtor and she was talking about how her daughter was thinking about following her boyfriend to Germany. He was going to do his master's program there. And the mom, of course, was like well, what are you going to do about your job? And she said well, I'm going to tell them they get the opportunity to let me work remote, or then I'm going to quit. And she straight up looked at her mom and said I'm only as loyal as my paycheck.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, that's how the company sees you. Why not? You're a number, so why not? It's kind of funny how business has shifted, because that's I mean, you can see that trend in so many places. But I feel like nursing so much, like I've never kept a position more than two years. I don't want to. I get bored. I you know there's always problems. I'll deal with a new set of problems. I'm tired of these problems.
Speaker 2:You know what I?
Speaker 1:mean For the most part I shift a lot. But older generations I mean like I'm people you know, they my husband's met the same job 20 years. He's an old soul. But there's a lot of people like that, you know they get a place. They don't want to move, they want to, they want to say they want to invest.
Speaker 2:I worked with nurses that had been in the same unit for 30 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't see those anymore, but I used to like I think like the last two have retired from where I am now, but yeah, I feel like that's just, it's rare to see that and I've been traveling for five years and it's. There are a lot of places that don't have any of that anymore Since COVID, post-covid, pre-covid, yes, but post-COVID.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And that's one of the things is that when you start to step into your worth and you start to create healthy boundaries and I think that's where these younger generations are really doing an amazing job, because they are they're establishing boundaries immediately and saying this is how I expect to be treated. You can treat me this way, because all I'm asking for is human decency and professionalism, and if I'm not receiving that, then there are plenty of places for me that I can go work, yeah, yeah. And the thing is is, again, they're not being rude, they're not being mean about it, they're simply stating, stating a boundary, and saying okay, here's the line, lines get crossed, I'm out, see, ya, yeah, and I love that, because I mean, brene Brown talks constantly about this the people that live most wholeheartedly have the most boundaries.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And you know, I thought this thing that I was on a TikTok and then I brought it to my therapist because I thought you know, what do you think about this? But this girl, she's a nurse. She's like, you know, when you're at work and someone's giving you pushback or someone's acting in from their emotions, reactive towards you, like just use a gentle parenting, like she's like gentle parent. People like I am not going to talk to you when you're in this place, like you know, if you want to come back and have this talk later, when you're like take a few minutes or you know, like very respectfully, but not engaging with that behavior in any way. And I was like god, that's such a great way to do it. I thought so I went to her. I'm like what do you think she's like? I think it's wonderful. I was like, okay, this is my new, this is my new way to deal with this.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. And something that I heard and I implemented it in the very first conversation right after I heard it was before immediately going to you know your best friend or one of your friends and just dumping on them about what's going on venting. Ask them do you have the mental bandwidth for me to talk about something?
Speaker 1:I have a really old friendship but that's something we've implemented in the last probably like five or seven years. We've been friends over 20. And it really makes a huge difference. I feel like in, because sometimes you don't know people are carrying stuff, we get worn out and then you back away when you don't have energy to. You know what I mean. You ghost people for a while when you don't have energy to carry their stuff. But if you're just honest, you don't it, then we stay closer. You know what I mean. We operate. I feel like it's very much added to our friendship absolutely.
Speaker 2:I don't know what happened to my hair here.
Speaker 1:Just for a second, sorry no, you're good, just your hair. Well, I, how long have we got my going here? Oh, we still got time. Good, I was gonna say it's so fun talking to you. I don't want to miss talking about your offer and what you're um you too, so we'll talk about that too, okay absolutely, absolutely, um so.
Speaker 2:So creating these boundaries is all part of yoga. One of the things that I talk about with my students and my clients is there's actually eight different portions of yoga. There's eight limbs of yoga the postures are only one of the limbs and the Niyamas, and they are practices that you introduce into your life how you interact with other people, do no harm, non-stealing, non-possessiveness and then there's the Niyamas, which are the practices that you have with yourself self-study, self-discipline, surrender, purity. These are things that you're paying attention to. What are the things that I'm bringing into my life? Am I surrounding myself with people that are gossipy and nitpicking and pull me down, or am I surrounding myself with people that lift me up and empower me? You know, going back to the nurses eat their young, and I have a friend of mine that has a movement nurses feed their young, and it's all about providing that supportive, empowering environment to nurses, and so those are the things that I'm focusing in on is how can I support, how can I empower, how can I remind people that you are an absolute, freaking amazing person, that there is literally nobody else in the world like you, so why would you try to be like anybody else. Instead, be the best version of yourself that you can possibly be, what makes you happy, what makes you light up. And if you're doing things that don't light you up, those are signs and symptoms that maybe you know. It's not saying you'll quit your job and go do something else. Maybe that is the solution. But instead, how can you add more things into your life that do make you happy, that do light you up, that when you start to talk about those things, you know, know, just like when you and I started talking, and immediately it was just okay, we're both going and we're both enjoying it and we're like, yes, absolutely, because this is something that lights us both up when you talk about how these things are beneficial, how, how burnt out.
Speaker 2:It took me a good couple years of stopping away from the bedside to be able to see just how burnt out I actually was. I knew it and I started to see it more and more. The real big indication to me was we've got three children and the last one was still living at home, when I was still working at the bedside and I had gone from full-time to part-time to per diem. And I'm getting ready for work and I'm packing my lunch and getting everything all set up. And he looks at me and he goes you're always so smiling and happy. Now that you've cut back your hours, it's like you're just. You're just happy all the time and I thought, well crap, what have I been before now?
Speaker 1:Tired really tired.
Speaker 2:Tired, exhausting. You know, exhausted, exhausting Snappy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, controlling Snappy. That was one of like I I I experienced habitual, like intense, severe burnout, like where I had medical problems and had to take months off work and all that and came back and have found balance now. But prior to the habitual burnout, that's one of the first things that started happening. I don't think I was quite as aware of then, but I think that was one of the first signs that I wish I could go back and make changes.
Speaker 1:Then is when I started feeling like real snippy, real short, like I can't handle one more thing. You know that like I'm gonna lose my temper. You know that kind of like real edginess and I feel like I operated that way for a long, long time. You know what I mean. I justified it because I was like I'm protecting people. You know like this is my job. You know what I mean Like. But in reality, like when I, after I healed and I really I what I tell some of the new nurses is like I practice a level of detachment now that I wasn't capable of before and that helps me so much. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Because the thing is is and this is probably going to a lot of nurses are going to see themselves or hear themselves in this the idea that we sit in our car before we go into work because we have to sit there and mentally prepare ourselves to the barrage of whatever it is that we're going to experience when we go in. Right, we know that there's going to be stuff happening and the question is are we going to be able to see it fast enough to do something fast enough to be able to be where we need to be? And having to sit in our car and have that space of okay, I can do this, I'm not going to lose my shit over this, it's going to be okay, right, or crying before we go into work. And then there's the coming out of work and sitting in your car and then just mentally unloading, crying, screaming, venting, whatever it is that we need to do. The problem is, it's still not enough, and I don't think people realize that and I don't think we, as nurses, are talking about this enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they need to have better preparation. I know that's like a huge change, but I feel like it needs to start in nursing school, also in med school. We're not the only ones that carry this. We just deal with it different and face a different set of stressors and a lot of people in healthcare honestly are teased. It's a different set of stressors so, like you know, and a lot of people in healthcare honestly like our teeth, you know. Like I mean, you say, nursing it's the biggest, most common, huge group of people. But really anyone who's working in healthcare in I don't know about the outpatient settings, but the inpatient settings is a very stressful, hard, hard environment on all levels.
Speaker 2:Well, I will tell you, I worked. So before I was a nurse, I was a phlebotomist and I was also a pseudo med tech. And then I was trained, but actually wasn't, you know, didn't have that particular background in medicine, and I worked in urgent care. That was part of our hospital system and it was in the evenings and so we would have, you know, people come in with the nail through the hand, you know, fell and broke their arm, the sniffles, you know, the things that people go to urgent care for. But then we would also have the ODs and the cardiac arrests and we would have these situations where, you know, shit hits the fan and there was a skeleton crew there of one doctor, one nurse, one x-ray tech, one MA and a phlebotomist. And when you've got that tiny of a staff, everybody's doing everything together and so it's not as intense. It's nothing like the ICU, nothing like working in, you know, one of the main hospitals. It has a different, it's more sporadic, it's like feast or famine. It's either everything. Everything is nothing.
Speaker 1:When you see it all the time. So there's not necessarily saying that it's harder Like when I talk about, I remember like talking, talking about this is the best example for me to see. This is when you talk about like child trauma, like kid trauma is like because things that you don't think are traumatizing traumatized children because like the worst thing they've ever experienced is the worst thing they've ever experienced, regardless of whether it seems dramatic to us, and that is like such a present thing. You know what I mean with trauma's. You can't compare it, you can't, but you know cause it's all different.
Speaker 1:You know there's a reason I'm an ICU nurse, it's because I probably I learned to deal with trauma before I was a nurse. I learned to compartmentalize a long, long time ago from other things, and that's what made me good at it, and so that's you know, yes, you know, yes.
Speaker 2:that is such a big component of an understanding that we don't necessarily have. Is that the one of the reasons that we went into medicine, that we went into nursing in the first place, is because we were already the nurturers, we were already the people pleasers, we were already the take, you know, the caregivers of somebody at some point in our life.
Speaker 1:We're very likely putting other people's needs before our own until it gets so bad that we learn to do it. You know what I mean, Because until we suffer enough that we learn to put ours first, we're most likely most of us are putting other people's needs before our own.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely. And that's the thing is, when we go into a career such a high stress career, with an already overstimulated nervous system, it's no wonder that we've had this culture of nurses eat their young, because we're already overstimulated that disconnection from our emotions, disconnection from our compassion. We think we're compassionate and we are. However, we have compartmentalized so much that we're not as compassionate as we have the potential to be, we're not as kind as we have the potential to be and we're not as loving as we have the potential to be. We're not as kind as we have the potential to be and we're not as loving as we have the potential to be. And that doesn't just go to our relationships with our patients, family members, doctors, coworkers. It extends to our own family, our own inner circle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:And that's the area where, when we learn to extend kindness and compassion and grace to ourself and to have that inner language change to where we start to recognize the direct imbalance that we have in our body, in our brain, in our nervous system, we start to shift and make small little choices that bring that disconnect. So if our sympathetic nervous system is up here and our parasympathetic nervous systems down here, we do things like go on vacation, go get a pedicure, go to get a massage, spend some time with our friends, and we think, oh, wow, like I did so much self-care and I feel so much better. But then we go to a yoga class and the person says, okay, we're gonna sit in stillness here for 15 minutes, and we think that's torture, why would I do that? And like boom, we're back up here again and the reason for that is because there's still this disconnect between our nervous system, we're still not in balance, and so anything that is truly restorative, relaxing, rejuvenating, that would bring us closer to balance, feels uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like I remember meditating when I first started meditating and also experiencing friends of mine as they start meditating, talking to me about it, like it's so hard to turn your brain off, you just want to quit, and it's like the practice is sitting there and letting that, not judging yourself for thinking during it, letting that, letting that be okay. It's acceptance on every level. And it's so hard to practice at first until you get in, get into it a little bit. Even now, some days I'm like ah absolutely.
Speaker 2:And the thing is is, again, just like, just like with yoga, because meditation is part of, it's one of the small parts. Again, there's different styles, there's different forms, and so when meditation is really difficult for us, that's a sign that we actually need even more so, and that's when we can use different styles of meditation where we can incorporate repeating a word, we can do chanting, we can do mantras, we can do affirmations, and I love that there's so many variations because it doesn't, again, it doesn't have to be the words that I say, it can be whatever words you want to. If you want to chant ladybug over and over, because the picture of a ladybug makes you feel calm, chant ladybug, right. So it's whatever it is that makes you feel calm.
Speaker 2:Or my favorite is the Kirtan Kriya. It's sa-ta-na-ma, and you say it out loud for two minutes, softly for two minutes, silently in your head for four minutes, and then softly for two minutes, and then out loud again for two minutes. So it's a 12 minute meditation. And this specific meditation has been. There's a white paper done on it by the Alzheimer's Research Foundation that shows that it improves cognitive function in dementia patients.
Speaker 1:Interesting. I didn't know that I have to write that down.
Speaker 2:And so when you do a meditation like that, especially when your mind is just like all twirly and you can't ground and you can't silence your mind, the thing is, remember, the whole point of meditation is not to empty your mind, it's not to silence your mind, it's to not follow the thought. So you see the thought and you start. You know well, I need to get this when I go to the store and I need to make sure, oh, and I got to make sure that I get by and pick up that outfit, right, you notice, oh crap, I just deviated. And then you come back and you're like okay, breathe in, breathe out. But if you're doing something like sata, you know you're, you're using hand mood mudras or hand movements and incorporating some type of repetitive sound. Then you're focused in on the hand movements and the repetitive sound and your thoughts don't stray as much harder for them to leak in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, stray as much harder for them to leak in. Yeah, exactly, and. And so it's those little moments where you go okay, I can't do this one today, because it's just not. And this is again going back to adaptive yoga is okay, what is what? What's the state of my, my nervous system right now? What's the state of my breathing? What's the state of mind? What's going to be most beneficial for me today? Is it doing a yin yoga practice? Is it doing a restorative yoga practice? Do I need to go to hot yoga and burn off some extra energy? Or, honestly, that's?
Speaker 1:my like, if like the worst ever, if I can't manage hot yoga as the thing that makes me feel better and that's the thing is you know't manage hot yoga it's the thing that makes me feel better.
Speaker 2:And that's the thing is. You know, there's so many different styles of yoga. One of the things that I really like is a lot of fascia flows, because it helps to unstick the sticky areas of my hips and my low back, and so it's a real slow flow and it's really good. But then I also need some some energetic movements periodically, and so there's different styles of yoga and there's different styles of meditation, just like there's different styles of breath work. You can do breath of fire where you're and then that changes.
Speaker 1:You know for me like it changes. But what works? All the time I'm going back and forth, I use them. Have you ever heard? Are you on insight timer? Yes, I was gonna say I keep meaning to mention it on this show, but it's a free app and it has like that. I mean I want to say over thousands, like probably hundreds of thousands, of free content in different styles meditation, sound therapy, like real therapists on they're doing actual courses, and then you can pay an upgrade. But there is probably tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of free content on there.
Speaker 2:There's no need to pay and it's a great, great resource I want to say it's like something ridiculous like 19 a year.
Speaker 1:If you do pay, I pay for it, because I like it, but and I, I'm like but it's a great, great resource.
Speaker 1:We're getting kind of long on time here, so I want to really make time to even talk about what you do for people and how you help people and how people can get ahold of you, because you've said such wonderful things I could talk to you. I mean, honestly, we could do like a four hour show, probably talk about this forever. I love talking about this stuff, so, but tell me about how you're helping people specifically now and how people can get a hold of you and what kind of people you're helping, like who? Who's who are your clients right now? Who's who could benefit from your services?
Speaker 2:I'm working with nurses that are stressed out, overwhelmed and want to have more happiness, joy in all areas of their life, and so I offer I offer courses. I offer CE courses on mindfulness, meditation, yoga, movement, things like how to say no without guilt. There are nurses that are entrepreneurs. I also offer courses on how to be a confident speaker, so there's a lot of different ways that we can incorporate yoga into all the different areas. I work one-on-one with clients, I have group therapy sessions, and then I also have courses, and soon there will be yoga retreats happening with CE courses as well too.
Speaker 1:And so you work with clients one on one. Do you incorporate yoga into that practice at all, or is it just coaching?
Speaker 2:I do incorporate. It's, yes, it's yoga therapy, so it's it. It's different every single time, so it could be we do a meditation, it could be when we do a movement, it's it's all of the things. And so yeah, absolutely so yeah. And then we I incorporate reiki and also veda counseling as well too. Um, which veda counseling is? Um very similar, it's uh, similar to astrology. Um, using using that information so that you can see what are your challenges, what are your tendencies, where are the areas so it's not like ayurveda veda is vedic is different.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's, oh, I didn't know that okay yeah.
Speaker 2:so ayurveda, yeah, is the sister science of yoga, because it's more about the medicine and food and all of the holistic aspects of it. Vedic astrology is looking at that specific moment in time where you were born, and seeing how that influences your life, your language and your impact on the world, and incorporating it in terms of how does it affect your health as well too Love that.
Speaker 1:So if people are looking for you and they're like yes, want to do this, do you do that all in person, or is it virtually as well?
Speaker 2:I do it virtually. The majority of it is virtual, okay, and so they can find me on social Eva Z wellness. Eva Z wellness on different social media, and then my website is Eva Z wellnesscom.
Speaker 1:Okay, and then I'll guess this question but like, what is your go to when things are like overwhelmed? Your go to like a self care or your mindfulness practice. It's like your go to.
Speaker 2:For me, it's being outside, going outside, either sitting outside and listening to the sounds around me or going for a walk, and being really intentional about how I'm breathing, how I'm walking and tuning into me, turning into my body.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's perfect. Well, Eva, thank you so much. I had such a blast talking to you. Hopefully you'll come back and talk to us again when you've got new promotions. Love to hear about them Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, I would love to do that. Thank you so much for having me. This was a blast and you're right, we could sit here and we could talk for hours.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's been a pleasure. So thanks so much. Bye.
