19. The Healing Power of Rituals: From Qigong to Breathwork

In this episode of Nourished with Dr. Anikó, Dr. Anikó invites you into the power of simple rituals that connect us more deeply to ourselves, to nature, and to one another. Inspired by a recent talk blending shamanic traditions with Western medicine, she explores how practices like welcoming the sun, grounding through the earth, and gentle movements such as Qigong can shift the way we carry ourselves through hard and uncertain times.

Through personal stories, dreams that crossed into waking life, and reflections on trauma-informed healing, Dr. Anikó shares why these rituals aren’t just spiritual or mystical—they’re biologically supportive and emotionally essential. These practices help us stay grounded in the present moment, resource ourselves with joy and calm, and open to wisdom that goes beyond words.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why morning rituals like greeting the sun and grounding through the earth help regulate your body and mind
• How Qigong and breathwork support aging bodies, stress relief, and emotional well-being
• The connection between dreams, intuition, and the deeper wisdom we often overlook
• Practical ways to release trauma that go beyond talk therapy and into body-based healing
• How to create your own simple daily ritual to stay resourced during life’s hardest moments

Whether you’re navigating uncertainty, looking for calm in the chaos, or simply curious about integrating more meaning into your mornings, this episode will inspire you to create a ritual that supports your body, mind, and spirit.

Tune in now and discover how small daily practices can open the door to resilience, healing, and a deeper connection to life itself.

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] Hello. Hello, y'all. Welcome back to Nourished with Dr. Aniko. Today I wanted to share some practices that I find to be not just supportive, but truly necessary when things get hard, when things get chaotic and when the answer really isn't that clear. And I was reminded of how important these practices [00:01:00] are because I went to a talk yesterday that was given by a shaman who is amazing, and then also a western medicine doctor who has worked to incorporate shamanism and shamanic practices and shamanic medicine into hospital settings, even ICU settings.

And even end of life settings. It was truly beautiful and powerful and it was a reminder of the fact that often we need some practices to keep us grounded in the present moment and also open to sort of the wisdom of the universe and the wisdom of one another to help. Solve problems that feel unsolvable, and also to help us walk paths that feel [00:02:00] impossible.

And he reminded me that it's so important, right? You can talk about it from a biological perspective. Of course, in the morning, you want to get the sun's rays on your retina, and that helps your circadian rhythm, all of that, right? He was talking about it from a more mystical perspective, and I really resonated with that yesterday and now, and.

I invite you to see if that resonates for you today. But he talked about greeting the day by welcoming the sun, by feeling your feet on the ground, on the earth, feeling the earth's energy and support below you, that sturdiness of the earth, and then kind of also opening yourself up to. The heavens, right?

That you're kind of this conduit of energy in some ways from the earth to the [00:03:00] heavens and then back down like you're a circuit, right? And this particular exercise involved some Qigong, which was beautiful. Um, some chakra work also. Huge fan. Love it. It doesn't have to be that for you, but if you've never explored Qigong or Tai Chi, I do encourage you to look into it.

It is so grounding. It feels really good, and the evidence shows that it's really good for our bodies and our minds, especially aging bodies. Really good for aging bodies and minds as well. But really for everybody. So I welcomed the sun this morning and my child came outside to see what I was doing and then sat down there and then pointed out the moon to me.

'cause the moon was still in the sky. And that felt really nice to be able [00:04:00] to say good morning to the moon as well as she made her way over the, you know, through her orbit to the other side of the planet.

And I can tell you that I feel really different walking around in this world, in my body today, having done that this morning than I did yesterday or the day before, or I didn't do that kind of particular kind of gratitude, delight, pranayama, Qigong. Openness to the universal wisdom smorgasbord kind of practice because yes, we can look at it scientifically, like I said, right with the light on your retina.

And then there's pranayama and we know that relaxation breath and that. Longer exhale than inhale is relaxing, right? We have the evidence to show us that that helps us and reduces inflammation and stress and all those things. And [00:05:00] there is also something beyond, and it reminds me of how we talk about how there are things that are just beyond words.

And I think we're really diving into this in a really beautiful way in trauma-informed modalities where for so many years people just talked and talked and talked and talked about their trauma and just couldn't get to relating to it differently or releasing it differently because to process it verbally is really, really different.

Then how it registered in our bodies, right? Because ultimately trauma registers in our bodies. So there are things that we need to do, states that we need to just be in, not talk about and describe, to able to access those parts of ourselves. Release what needs to be released. Access that healing energy that can get to where it [00:06:00] needs to go.

And similarly, a lot of times, the answers that we're looking for and the strength that we're looking for sometimes, and the support that we're looking for isn't gonna come from thinking about it more. Sometimes it comes from just opening ourselves to the flow of the universe.

And to the deeper wisdom that is in us that is actually connected with everything.

And I know to many, this sounds super out there. And so I like to bring it back to an experience that so many of us share that it seems mundane. But it is mystical, y'all. And what I'm talking about is two things really. One is that almost everybody that I have ever spoken to about this says they have had a dream [00:07:00] before that later came true, right?

We're out here having premonition dreams, just like on the regular. So, so many of us and being like, huh, isn't that weird? Isn't that funny? Instead of being like, isn't that magic? Isn't that magic that we are so connected to the fabric of the universe that we are able to dream things that later become reality.

It's wild. Or even that sort of interconnected feeling. Communication really that we have with loved ones where sometimes you think about somebody and you can't stop thinking about them and then they call you. So many of us have had that experience and instead of thinking about it like, wow, we are so interconnected, like our energy is just interwoven.

A lot of it's just kind of write it off like, huh. Isn't [00:08:00] that weird? But yeah. And then we just move on with our day. Like if we really took that in as true evidence of a beyond kind of connection that we had,

it would be a little bit different I think. I think many more of us would be more open to the beyond. What's beyond words, what's beyond what we can see. I recently had, well, actually had a couple experiences actually this morning, um, with my child when they came out and I was greeting the sun and the moon and doing my Qigong.

And after I finished that. I was just really enjoying watching the birds and the trees, and I like touched the tree branch because I was on a, the second floor so I couldn't just like jump out onto the grass or anything like that, but just touching a plant felt really nice and I shared that I had dreamt.

Without getting, I mean [00:09:00] it's not a very interesting dream. It was about how that child that was with me had had a fever and I was trying to measure their fever and they just like would not keep the thermometer in their mouth and was like chewing on it and kept opening their mouth and I was like, that's gonna mess up the reading. And I could not get an appropriate reading 

I was very upset about it in the dream, I kind of almost woke up upset about it. and interestingly enough, this morning, my child shared that they had also had a dream about somebody having a fever.

And again, not identical dreams, but, huh. Isn't that interesting? Right. And I recently. I did have an almost identical dream to my husband about something that I had had a discussion with friends about that I had not communicated to him. And then he and I had the exact same dream to the point where when I told him my dream in the morning, he totally freaked out.[00:10:00] 

And y'all, that happens so often, you know, like, what's it gonna take for us to own? That we have a beyond kind of connection with one another. And the reason that I'm talking about this so much today is that sometimes it is in that beyond that, the answer lies. It is in that beyond that, the strength lies.

It is in that. Beyond that, we can move forward, especially when things are hard and kind of beyond in some ways our capacity at times and also what is so. Vital to traversing difficult times is not only fully experiencing those delights, which we talked about in a previous episode, but also fully being able to be.

In the present moment, like grounded in that present [00:11:00] moment because so often when things are hard or when scary things are happening, we are jumping into an imaginary future that has not happened and may never happen, and we are wasting our energy there. I remember hearing an interview with Matt Damon and he was talking about something that Robin Williams had said, which was.

You know, if the worst is gonna happen, I'd rather just live it that one time that it happens than the thousands of times I play it over and over again in my head. Other people capture this idea with, don't spend your energy on the what if. Spend it on the what is and I. 

because I work in the postpartum space, and obviously birth is such a rich experience for, really for all of us. Um, I think about the [00:12:00] importance of. Relaxing between contractions, right? Not anticipating them, but soaking in all the comfort and all the rest that is available to us between contractions.

Right. And I come back to that image so much in my life where when things get hard, there is this desire to almost spend so much time in the hard 'cause. You think that if you think about it enough, you'll figure it out. Where you are resourcing yourself by not being in the heart all the time. You're resourcing yourself with soaking in the delight, the joy, the groundedness, the calmness of the moment that you're in right now.

So I hope this inspires you to maybe create a ritual of your own in the morning. Doesn't have to be Qigong. That, just feeling your feet on the [00:13:00] ground, maybe having some sips of hot tea, really being present in your body so that you can soak in the joy, the delight, the comfort, the connection of every moment when it is available to you so that you are resourced in your hard moment.

And also so that you're open to the answers that are maybe beyond words, beyond just us. The answers that we kind of come to collectively in the same ways that we kind of call to each other, no matter how far we are from each other. There's a way that sometimes we call to each other that maybe is just that way that we pop into each other's heads and then that person calls us.

So. Take good care of y'all and I'll see you next time. [00:14:00]