13. Face Everything and Rise: The Hidden Truth About Control That Changes Everything

In this reflective episode of Nourished with Dr. Anikó, Dr. Anikó shares a spontaneous message inspired by a yoga session and the powerful reminder that acceptance is at the root of joy. 

She explores the human tendency to resist discomfort and attempt to change external circumstances and offers a deeply compassionate perspective on how true healing often arises not from fixing, but from allowing.

Drawing from personal experience, clinical insight, and mindfulness-based practices, Dr. Anikó invites listeners to consider how they might cultivate resilience, not by controlling everything around them, but by creating inner stability and presence.

This episode is a gentle and empowering call to face everything and rise, with breath, stillness, presence, and courage.

Key Takeaways:

• Why resistance to discomfort creates suffering and how acceptance becomes a path to peace
• The paradox of healing: how presence and emotional spaciousness matter more than fixing
• A breakdown of meditation and breathwork as accessible, evidence-based tools for resilience
• How your breath is your built-in anchor, available anytime, anywhere

Episode Highlights:

02:00 How trying to change others creates suffering
03:15 Hospice care, terminal illness, and healing without curing
04:40 Resisting discomfort vs. befriending it
05:20 Fear and the power of “Face Everything And Rise”
07:45 The truth about silent meditation:
09:10 Why walking meditation and guided practice are helpful
10:30 How breath affects the nervous system and how to use it to reset
12:00 What to do when “life throws something else at you”

This episode will remind you that peace isn’t found in control t’s found in presence. You already have the tools within you.

Connect with Dr. Anikó:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.aniko/

Website: https://www.draniko.com/

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Disclaimer:
The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you heard on this podcast.

Transcript

Dr. Anikó: [00:00:00] Hey y'all. Welcome back to another episode of Nourished with Dr. Aniko. The sound on this episode might be a little bit wonky because I don't have my typical sound gear set up because I was just sort of spontaneously called to talk about this topic after a particularly lovely yoga class this morning that was out on an alpine lake, um, on a deck overlooking a beautiful alpine [00:01:00] lake and.

The ideas that this teacher was sharing were not new, but I really needed to hear them this morning. And I imagine that many of us need to hear this this morning, which is that acceptance is at the root of joy and happiness and contentment. I don't know about y'all, but I have spent a lot of my life trying to change circumstances, Trying to change people's personalities, perhaps. Lots of alliteration right there and. All it does is create suffering. And yet what do we do with our frustration and what do we do with our, ultimately our discomfort in having to deal with circumstances that [00:02:00] maybe don't fit us or maybe don't feel good?

And I wanna be clear that my expectation of life is not to always feel good. I think that, I imagine that. As a sort of happily ever after fairytale when I was younger. And that is not my expectation as a now actually middle-aged human being on this planet. And yet I do spend a lot of my time and energy trying to change my circumstances sometimes.

And I imagine many, many of us do.

And yet, somewhat ironically, or maybe it's not ironic, it's just the exact design of life and the universe it is in making friends and peace with that discomfort. Where we grow the most, right? We grow the most when there is difficulty, when there is pain [00:03:00] even, and sometimes the things that we are trying our hardest to change are the things that we fear the most.

A really easy example of this is working in healthcare, for example. It's really hard for a lot of. People who work in healthcare and just people on the planet, right to accept death and dying to accept the realities of disease, of terminal illnesses. And yet, if you have ever worked in hospice or ever worked with people who are terminally ill, there is so much healing.

That is possible without any kind of cure. You're not changing the disease process, you're not changing the circumstances. You're shifting your heart to a place where it can hold it all, and that in my [00:04:00] life has been some of the most beautiful. Healing and growth that I have ever witnessed and I have ever experienced myself.

And having said all that, I still fall into the trap of trying to change all the things and all the people around me so that I am most comfortable. And man, it just doesn't work like that. So today, I'm not just here to. Share that sort of reality of the human condition. I would also love to share some tools that I have used and also tools that are evidence-based, of course, because I am a doctor and an integrative doctor, so when I talk about something, I do like to bring evidence into the picture as well.

Honestly, the most powerful tool that I have found to be [00:05:00] helpful in this area of acceptance. And again, acceptance doesn't mean that we don't face injustice, right? It doesn't mean that we don't face fear. But it doesn't mean that we're constantly tinkering with everyone and everything around us so that we are in the greatest spot of comfort.

We create resilience and comfort within ourselves so that we can hold all that the world has to throw at us. And another wonderful thing, and I'm just gonna give a special shout out to Jean at Bishop Yoga. You can follow her on Instagram at Bishop Yoga. But she talked about the acronym of fear instead of forget everything and run, it's face, everything and rise.

when we face our fear, we face everything and rise. And as I said, the best way I have found to ground myself and find my own stability and [00:06:00] strength, 

 is. silent meditation. And there is lots and lots of research that shows the benefits of meditation. It reduces inflammation, it reduces cortisol levels, so activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which as we talked about in previous episodes, is the rest and digest complimentary system to the fight or flight sympathetic system.

So we need both of these systems. But typically in our modern day with all our notifications and our fast paceness and our disconnection from nature, we tend to be in, in a sort of sympathetic overdrive. So engaging the parasympathetic nervous system is really important and really nourishing. And for me, I wasn't really able, when I first started.

Doing meditation or practicing meditation, because at the end of the day, that's what we're doing. We're just [00:07:00] practicing it, and we're getting more and more skilled at becoming present and being able to find that pause between the in breath and the out breath so that we can choose our responses instead of just being reactive to the world around us.

And as you can imagine, when you are working towards. A place of acceptance and true presence. It is choosing your responses That is essential because otherwise we're just in a cycle of reactivity and that, as you can imagine, is pretty sympathetically driven. And what for me is really powerful is to just listen to my in breath and my out breath, to watch the thoughts flow by.

Watch myself get carried away with them sometimes, and then just bring myself back every single time. So a real misconception about [00:08:00] silent meditation is that it's easy for certain people. Um, it's certainly easier for some people than for others. But this practice of watching your thoughts, watching your discomfort, watching your restlessness, and just being present with it.

That's the practice of meditation. But I will say that I did find silent seated meditation quite difficult when I first started meditating. And so an offering for people who are just starting to. Consider even a meditation practice. Walking meditation can be really, really lovely. You can do meditation, you can do guided meditation, but I do encourage people to work towards silent meditation because it really offers such a powerful place to act from [00:09:00] because.

Your anchor in silent meditation isn't somebody else's voice. It isn't movement, it isn't imagery. It is your breath, and your breath is with you always. You get to take your tool and your anchor with you everywhere you go on this planet. When you practice silent meditation and silent still meditation, that doesn't mean that has to be the only kind of meditation you practice, but I do encourage everybody to use this type of practice.

As part of all the practices that they use to center calm and nourish themselves. One quick note on breath work that I think is really intuitive, but I like to mention it, is that our breath is impacted by our nervous system And the converse is also true. Our [00:10:00] breath impacts our nervous system. So even though it seems almost silly to talk about breath work as a powerful way to impact your nervous system, it works so well. And when I talk to kids about this. They have an absolutely intuitive sense about it as well.

And the example I use is if I were breathing like this, short, shallow breaths,

how do you think I feel on the inside? And typically the kids will say, you feel scared, you feel nervous. And that's absolutely true. But if you breathe like this for long enough, you will actually start to feel scared and nervous because your breath is impacting your nervous system. Now, contrast that with this.

Ah.

How do you think I feel on the inside when I breathe like that? [00:11:00] And kids will typically say, calm, relaxed, right? We even have a phrase for this, right? A relaxing sigh when you have a shorter in breath and a long out breath. Ah, and you even vocalize on the outbreath, right? You even really. Let that stress out through your out breath, that will impact your nervous system, right?

So it's not just a reflection of your inner emotional state. It impacts your inner emotional state and calmness. So that's why I say that meditation and breath work is the most powerful tool that I have found. To begin the journey because it is a journey with twists and turns, right? You think you've gotten there.

Now you're totally zen. You can accept anything that life throws at you, and then life throws something else at you and you don't feel so [00:12:00] zen or so grounded. Or maybe you're not eating as nourishing as you normally do, or maybe you're in a new situation, or maybe you don't have all your support system, or maybe you're not in nature as much, right?

All of these. Pillars of health are all so important for us to be able to truly face everything and rise. So I hope y'all found this nourishing today, and I hope y'all. Invite a little bit of breath, work, a little bit of still silent meditation into your life, just to start noticing the anchor of your breath and to start noticing how beautiful and powerful you truly are.

Take good care y'all, and I'll see you next time. [00:13:00]