Show notes –
Join Christine & Guest Co-host Sacil Armstrong for a conversation about Emotional & Mental Wellness with special guest Monisha Mittal.
Shealo Glo – www.shealoglo.com Now offering Subscriptions * Delivered on the 1st & 15th!
Discount Code – WISE5
Nominate your Shearo by emailing subject “My Shearo” to shealoglo@gmail.com
Stillpoint – https://www.amazon.com/Stillpoint-Self-Care-Playbook-Caregivers-Breathe/dp/1732370400
Guest Host: Sacil Armstrong
Join us in community: https://women-connected-in-wisdom.mn.co/feed
Listen to past episodes: https://womenconnectedinwisdompodcast.com/
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This week’s resources and references:
Yoga with Adriene – https://www.youtube.com/c/yogawithadriene
Cynthia Winton-Henry – The Hidden Monastery
Dr. Cynthia Phelps – WCIW Episode 22 Replay
Joanna Lindenbaum – Sacred Depths Coaching
Connect with Monisha!
Website – http://monishamittal.com/index.html
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/monisha.mittal
Facebook – Big Love Alchemy with Monisha Mittal
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show.
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
And today we have a special guest her co host.
Unknown Speaker 0:47
Hello, I am Cecile Armstrong, I am a brown skin woman. And I am a facilitator. I teach anti racism and equity with self care, enjoy, I help people get in their bodies, and practice self forgiveness and breathe so that we can actually have those tough conversations. And we can hear each other instead of talking past each other and being so defensive, and we can actually make some progress.
Christine Gautreaux 1:13
Every week we get together and we have intentional conversations about wellness how to be well in relationships and business in life and and calling the name of our friend and regular co host, Shana Mitchell, who was unable to be with us today, and I am so glad to have this conversation with you today. Cecile,
Unknown Speaker 1:34
thank you, I’m happy to be here. I’m happy for the opportunity and to spend time with you talking about this because this is important, right?
Christine Gautreaux 1:42
Today’s topic, we’re talking about emotional and mental wellness. So before we get to the definition, let’s just do a check in with each other. Both of you and I are body based practitioners. And I know this because we’ve collaborated together, we like to start almost every class or gathering with a deep breath.
Unknown Speaker 2:01
Yeah, do it. Like I can use one right now.
Christine Gautreaux 2:05
Alright, let’s take a moment to take a couple of deep breaths together. Okay, go.
Let’s do one more. And if you want to shake out any stress that might have crept in today.
And for folks that are listening and not watching, I’m also rolling my shoulders, because just in all transparency, I’ve had a knot in my shoulder for about a week that is getting worked on, but it’s where I’m carrying all my stress.
Unknown Speaker 2:44
Yeah, well, what’s my inhale and exhale, I was definitely stretching because I needed more than just the breath. I needed to start throttle body. Right, because there’s
Christine Gautreaux 2:53
a lot going on. Right? Yeah. I mean, I know everybody, I’m talking to all my clients, all my colleagues. There’s personal stuff, in addition to world stuff, right? Yes. Yeah. And the combo right now is pretty incredible. It is. It’s
Unknown Speaker 3:12
overwhelming sometimes. Right?
Christine Gautreaux 3:15
Yeah. So we’re going to be talking today about emotional and mental wellness. And how do we do this? You know, how do we do this? So I’m gonna read the definition, and then we’ll have a chat, and then we’re gonna bring on our awesome guests or two sounds good. So according to the National Institutes of Health, emotional and mental wellness, how you feel can affect your ability to carry out everyday activities, your relationships, and your overall mental health. How you react to your experiences and feelings can change over time. emotional wellness is the ability to successfully handle life stresses and adapt to change in difficult times.
Unknown Speaker 4:00
To totally make sense and that’s a huge thing. That’s a big thing to be able to intentionally take care of how you how you relate, and how you respond.
Christine Gautreaux 4:16
Yeah, and well and that I like that ability to successfully handle well that sounds so benign, right? When you think about what we’ve all been going through lately, there’s a lot of life stresses change in difficult times. So what is one of your Cecilia we’ll talk about more when we bring our guests on but like what is one of your pro tips or go twos, to handling life stressors,
Unknown Speaker 4:44
definitely getting grounded. If you if what when I say for everyone when I can start the day grounded I do better throughout the day and when I remember to check in with myself and ground throughout the day. That that just makes my day goes so much smoother. And when I don’t take the time to do that, when I like rushed into it, and I don’t take time throughout the day, I find myself scattered and, you know, getting bumped around emotionally, even physically sometimes because you know, when you’re not grounded, it’s easy for you to just be in somebody else’s way. So grounding is is huge for me.
Christine Gautreaux 5:19
Right? And for earlier, that grounding might be a new product practice, or maybe they they are grounding, and they don’t realize what they’re doing. What do you define as grounding, like, give some examples of how you ground?
Unknown Speaker 5:31
Okay? Well, grounding is being centered in being in your body. That’s what it is. And there are several ways to get there. One way is through meditation. For me, when I go to the beach, that is such a grounding place for me, I can be as stressed, I can be like ready to cry, ready to scream, and I go to the beach. And as soon as my feet hit the water, it’s like the water just washes it all away. So being outside in nature is a great way to get grounded I am. Well, you’ve heard me talk about this before actually on your podcast, how I go outside everyday, barefoot, barefoot in the grass every day, because that’s one way for me to get connected to my body and remember what it feels like to be connected to the earth. There’s a ton of other ways to get grounded. But those are the things that work for me. Right? I know, you grow too. I know you grow too. So
Christine Gautreaux 6:23
I like to go out in my backyard, I am lucky enough to build a labyrinth back there. So I like to go back and greet the sunrise with with some morning meditation and walking and really, you know, taking that moment to breathe. And to me, like an interplay. You know, we all we know that just even taking that deep breath and letting it out with focused intent is Yeah. You know, because so much in our society, we’re just go, go, go, go go. So Right. You know, lately, our co founder of interplay, Phil Porter, has been adding a thing into our warmup that he says, Take 30 seconds and do nothing. Mm hmm. And that doesn’t sound like a long amount of time. But 30 a year, right?
Unknown Speaker 7:14
When you’re going, going going and you feel like you can’t stop and you’ve got to get this stuff done. 30 seconds can seem like a really long time.
Christine Gautreaux 7:21
Right? And I would invite any of our listeners to do that. Just to take 30 seconds or a minute and be still and see what bubbles up. But yeah, and but I mean, it really ties into what we’re talking about today about emotional mental wellness, because sometimes we don’t want to be still because we’re not healing, emotionally or mentally well, right. Okay. So if you are ready, I want to I want to introduce our guests today. And
Unknown Speaker 7:50
so ready, are you
Christine Gautreaux 7:53
y’all met right before the show and like two peas in the pod I’m sorry. To have this conversation between the three of us I will as always, especially when it’s a friend I read the bio directly so I don’t mess it up. So here let me get for it. Monisha Mattel is a spiritual guide facilitator and certified sacred depths coach who became an interplay leader in 2021 of my inner play colleagues that I adore. As someone who always felt she didn’t belong. Interplay helped her realize she has always listened to her surroundings through her whole body and the wisdom that lives in there, who focus has always been on bridging communication between the unheard and the herd. Her passion is to help people connect to their soul expressions and navigate challenges from a deeper wisdom. She offers workshops, one on one deep dive sessions, and is also working on completing a book on listening to our bodies wisdom, titled we move for our own joy learning in the language of our physicality. I am right I know excited to introduce y’all to my friend and colleague Maneesha welcome.
Unknown Speaker 9:11
Hi, Christine Heiser CLM. Really, really delighted to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Christine Gautreaux 9:17
We are so delighted to have you my friend. How are you today?
Unknown Speaker 9:22
I am so well. I am so well. It’s been just a sweet flowing of days even with the different things that I’m juggling. But it goes right back to some of the things to seal and you were talking about to let me have that because it’s not like there’s not a ton going on. Right going on. But it has been a sweet couple of days and I’m really grateful for that experience.
Christine Gautreaux 9:53
Yeah, one of the things I know because y’all are my friends and our listeners don’t know is all three have us as at different times in different capacities been caregivers, in addition to running businesses, working new jobs, taking care, you know, household management. That’s a big job to have, in addition to our own emotional and mental wellness. So Monisha, like, what do you do? What’s a pro tip? What do you do for emotional and mental wellness?
Unknown Speaker 10:27
Yeah, so you know, I have a couple of things to add to what we talked about. So my body system is one that has ran anxious on like, it’s an anxious nervous system for a really long time, also been quite prone to locate depression. So what has really evolved into practice for me, I really need to be yoked to my breath, right. So it’s like that union of breath in my body. And so doing meditation pretty much every morning, um, you know, to the point where I can feel that I’m being breathe, that helps me relax. So that’s kind of one big thing. And then the second thing is yoga. So with yoga, it’s just like a 2025 minute thing. And I do it, you know, in my house, you know, with the with the the YouTube free videos, I have this woman that I love yoga with Adrian. And what that does is, there’s just a sequel, you know, what it does without you even needing to worry about it, it just takes out all the blocks, you know, like, if you slept a little funny, or if you’re carrying a piece of energy, you know, it’s creating a little river of energy all in your body. And then there’s this place where it’s just like, it all frees you. And I’m like, Oh, I’m here, you know? And that’s kind of my, my coffee moments like, I’m awake.
Christine Gautreaux 11:59
That money? Yeah, I’m gonna put that in the show notes to the so folks can find your morning yoga with Adrienne. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 12:07
yeah. Oh, my God, she’s phenomenal. So then I have a third tip. Now that a couple of things we’ve all been mentioned in our day to day things. And I think that they’re really important for you know, just like not feeling overwhelmed. And which again, like those days, I call them waterfalls, I just feel like I’ve been on a waterfall and I’m just, you know, being swept away. But so I think the longer term practice, and I think that gets to kind of some of the things I was listening to, in that definition that you read, we have this beautiful Interplay practice called noticing. And I think the beautiful thing with noticing, so I wrote a quote the other day on my post, and it said, it’s a very different skill set to be able to have a feeling without the story of the feeling. And so, you know, that’s the thing, we have emotional wellness, in particular, where we, you know, we have a lot of stories from our past as to when something’s happening, and what that triggers in us emotionally, what that triggers in our nervous system. And so this ability to watch our experience, while we’re having the experience, the ability to watch to have the experience while watching the experience. That means we can have our emotions, but not be overwhelmed by them, you know, we have a greater chance to catch that breath. and separate the story from what’s happening for us, actually.
Unknown Speaker 13:38
That is a skill. And when I first heard about that, being able to have your experience and observe at the same time, it took me a while to figure out how to be able to do that even now, even though I know how to do it. I have to say it’s not second nature. It’s something that I actually have to stop and remind myself. So that I mean, I saw that works. It works, but that’s a skill.
Unknown Speaker 14:01
Yeah, it’s it’s a beautiful skill. And it’s just like, it’s just goes along with meditating. Like, gosh, when I began meditating, like, well, you know, my gosh, a minute was hard, you know? And yeah, now 20 minutes is easy peasy. You know,
Christine Gautreaux 14:15
I, it took me years, y’all, y’all are not gonna be surprised with my energy level. It took me years to be able to meditate what I had to figure out because I’m a very kinesthetic learner. And so what I had to figure out is I need to do yoga, before I meditate, or I need to go for a walk before I meditate. I’ve always been a little envious of folks that can just drop down and meditate. And I’m not one of them. But I figured out well the way is I have to get out some of my physical energy in order to be able to sit still. So
Unknown Speaker 14:47
that’s lovely. That makes sense, though, that but then that’s the I got into meditation through moving meditation. I mean, I couldn’t get into meditation without someone. I learned it through moving meditation. So someone guided us to just being able to move any way the body wanted. And so that was what dropped me into the fact that my body could lead like, I didn’t have to be in control, and I can get out of my mind. So all those things, you know, were kind of necessary to get me to that place.
Unknown Speaker 15:17
Before I could do the traditional kind of meditation, I learned Zentangle, that’s a drawing meditation. And that’s what got me into it, because I couldn’t just sit still, and just that little bit of movement with my hand and focusing on marking on the paper was able to get me into that state.
Unknown Speaker 15:32
That’s lovely. That is lovely. And, you know, I think the other thing I’d bring up is like, like, all these things are personal strategies. And obviously, that’s so important. But, um, I just can’t also under estimate the value of a community, like spending time incrementally over your life, to build the relationships that allow you to be yourself, so that people who might just understand to listen, like when you’re not, when your emotions are getting the better of you like, that’s something I try to offer people. When I can see it, just like, you know, you need someone to listen, just, you know, call, and I think that that helps the most, it helps me a lot.
Christine Gautreaux 16:21
I sometimes take for granted, I’ll be really honest, like how awesome my community is. Because even like when you said that Maneesha I think I mean, I literally could think of 10 people I could call and realize even as you say that out loud, like there’s a lot of people that may not have that person. So like to seeking out a community or group of people that will listen and hold space for you. I think he is it’s not to be undervalued. That’s first No,
Unknown Speaker 16:52
not at all.
Unknown Speaker 16:53
I think I say that from a place of absolutely having the experience when I was younger that I was all alone in this thing called love. And I do have paid professionals, you know, coaches and that I have invested in for four experiences. And I I know that sounds like a luxury but it’s also something we can build towards. I think it’s absolutely. Many times I think it’s insane not to have those resources, but but then finding other communities and building those relationships now, like two to three decades later, I can be like, Oh my gosh, this is so different from when I was younger.
Christine Gautreaux 17:34
To I have I really resonate that with it with that Maneesha because people that know me now, like have no idea how shy I was a kid. And Mike has definitely did I felt like and I really like people would be like,
Unknown Speaker 17:49
I would not have guessed that about you. I would not have guessed that about you. But then again, I was so shy when I was in school. I mean, the teachers couldn’t even hear me when I would try to answer a question. So
Christine Gautreaux 18:04
to what helps your associate, I don’t mean to put you on the spot. But I’m curious about your transformation, because I have like a moment of transformation in my life that I was like that opened myself up to being more. So what was there one certain thing for you?
Unknown Speaker 18:21
I don’t know that it was well, I think it was a series of things that happened all at the same time when I was in high school. And it was it was a situation where I felt like I had to stand up for someone else. And it was several things that happened back to back where I saw injustice and I could not be quiet. And then I ended up being very vocal and very active and you know, ended up actually starting starting a campaign and collecting signatures to try to make change. And after that, after that it was just like, well, this is this is who I am what I got to do.
Christine Gautreaux 18:58
Yeah, Nisha, what about you? Like what helps you to feel connected?
Unknown Speaker 19:03
Um, so let’s see, do you mean, connected to my purpose?
Christine Gautreaux 19:08
Well, well, we can go to purpose, but even like going from being shy to being out there with your work in the world.
Unknown Speaker 19:14
Oh my gosh, what a journey. Yeah, what a journey. So, um, that has been really tough. And in from, from the sense of what really helped me is there were mentors, specific mentors, I feel that really helped me reclaim my voice. Like, there were, for example, this this woman in my workplace, you know, she stepped in my path and just pointed out to me, she was just like, you know, Maneesha you don’t think the way other people think you know, you have a different processing system. And I got that like in my 30s. And so then I was like, oh, instead of being scared that there was something different about me, I could begin to, you know, lean into it and say, oh, you know what, let me explore this, let me find out what that is. And then, um, it was, like, you know, growing up in a very traditional Asian culture, you know, just not having access to my voice. And so it’s been a beautiful series of just like incremental steps, especially by other women, I need to point out other women supporting me in leadership roles, and you know, that kind of thing. So that I can, I could claim my particular gifts and intelligences. And then with interplay, I feel the biggest thing I learned was baby steps, like, you know, we talked about the practice of incrementality. But because of the way leaders training is, it helped me a ton, because we could create these small incubator spaces, and then I could keep growing, you know, larger. So I would just say that still a work in progress. But that has been, I’m in such wider waters rather than narrow waters from where I started. Oh,
Christine Gautreaux 21:04
I love Well, one of the things I know you’ve been up to, that I want you to tell our listeners about, because it’s so exciting, and I love it when we get these downloads, but tell us about Big Love alchemy, and that project that you’ve been working on?
Unknown Speaker 21:19
Sure, you know, so, um, I would say, you know, so, over the last five to six years, one of the biggest transformations that’s happening, and this goes back to the words the seal used intention, you know, when we’re intentionally trying to bring bigger awareness to our relationships, well, I have, I’ve been able to transform relationships in my family, very personal, you know, relationships with mother with Father, you know, with sisters, like I’m being very much the outcast, right in my family to, to experience real relationships that I didn’t have access to before. And so I just felt that it was important to kind of vibrate that out to the world to let them know that there’s this bigger plane of love, that we all it’s like this big ocean or glue that we’re all like swimming in. And that there are ways like things don’t need to be problems, like there are ways to attune to, to what we can do or I mean, it doesn’t have to be active, we don’t have to speak. But it’s just an attenuation, we can tune into this frequency of big love so that we can actually in our 3d lives experienced real, giving rewarding closer relationships.
Unknown Speaker 22:48
I think I just heard a quote that I’m going to write down things don’t have to be problems. Right? Yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 22:59
Oh, sorry, just popped up for folks that are viewing but I want to read it out loud. For folks that are listening, you can find the big love alchemy on Facebook, at page, your inner east. Yeah, your inner ease. I love that. Thank you.
Unknown Speaker 23:16
So what I’m doing is I’m creating these very many podcasts they are they’re just about 10 minutes long. And I read I pick a theme, and I read two poems from my inner heart. And so that that gets people into the activation of the energy. So it could be by activating people’s inner light, it could be about activating their inner divinity. And then for just a few moments after the and I and I encourage people to have their experience with the listening, you know, and to affirm what wants to be affirmed from from what they heard so that their body spirit is receiving the affirmation, you know, the vibration in there that’s meant for them. And then I just speak for a few minutes into the greater invitation of that fee and the inspiration for the poems. So oh
Unknown Speaker 24:01
my gosh, I love that. Yeah, I’m gonna go like I’m going on Facebook right now. So I can follow that.
Christine Gautreaux 24:08
Well, and you can also you can download them on SoundCloud. Right, Monica?
Unknown Speaker 24:13
Yeah. So basically, I am on Apple and Spotify. And I think I’m about to get on Libsyn because I’m going to switch my platform over there following Christine’s beautiful lead, but it’s called Big Love alchemy sound card series, so it’s totally fun. I feel like they’re digital postcards. Like sound.
Christine Gautreaux 24:35
That’s what I was gonna say and really yummy. Like, you know, like, if you are a person that needs to be guided in meditation, or you know, your meditation is about just listening to something. These are beautiful bite size things that just to me, get me in my heart. And of course, get me connected to you Maneesha because I hear your voice and now, I know a secret that a lot of our listeners don’t know Oh, that we didn’t talk about ahead of time. So I hope it’s okay. But you this you use this big love alchemy? Do you also do a thing called the hidden monastery? Do you want to tell folks about that?
Unknown Speaker 25:12
Yeah. Well, you know, you mentioned Phil Porter. He’s a co founder of interplay. Well, his other part of the CO is a woman named Cynthia Winton, Henry, and she has very much delved into the spiritual side of body wisdom. And so her offering in the world is hidden monastery calm. And as part of that she has created a format called Dance chapel. And we it’s a one hour format, and people come with their intentions. We move we it’s a place where you can dance your prayers is probably the best way to put it. Yeah, yeah. And it’s gorgeous, because you have space to move for yourself. But then you also have space to move on behalf of other people’s prayers. Yeah, that should
Christine Gautreaux 26:00
be offering. And if you get a chance, go check it out. Monisha. You usually do one on Fridays, right?
Unknown Speaker 26:08
Yeah, we’re I’m taking August off, but I will be doing this Saturday this Thursday. So it’s from 1230 to 1:30pm. I’m co hosting with Jean Sione, it’s 1230 to 1:30pm. Eastern Time, and 930 to 1030. Pacific time.
Christine Gautreaux 26:25
And we will put the link in the show notes so folks can find it because these, there’s like seven or more offerings in the hidden monastery. Like every day you can find an offering. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 26:39
Every day, you were able to find two offerings. There was one at 1230. And then there was one at 730 at night. Wow. Yeah, yeah. So that’s been beautiful. It’s a, it’s an incredible place, what can come through for you in like just taking that 30 minute pause in your day.
Christine Gautreaux 26:59
I know when Cynthia first started those. It’s been a couple of years, but I was part of one of the communities for about a year it was part of my mental and emotional well being, I would go once a week. And so highly recommend it for folks, because it’s a way to access your body wisdom, dance your prayers, like you said, Maneesha and just be in community and be seen,
Unknown Speaker 27:22
you know, that’s my biggest wish with big of alchemy. And anything I do is just, I just want people to know how much they’re fundamentally whole, to begin with, like, no one’s broken, and no one needs fixing. And all. All we want to do is just provide a space to connect reconnect people to what’s already available to them. And, and you know, speaking about equality, I just think that’s the most fundamental equalizer of all like, body, you get access to your wholeness.
Unknown Speaker 27:55
Exactly, exactly. That’s it. That’s the word. That is the word.
Christine Gautreaux 28:05
I love that y’all. I love it. Well, when you think about your really hard days, when you think about days that were knocked off center, or we get bad news, or we’re dealing with grief and loss, because we were having the conversation ahead of time before we got online that so many people in our world that we personally know or ourselves are dealing with grief and loss at this. Yeah. Is there anything, especially when you’re being tender with yourself, that you do that you might do differently than a regular day, like for your emotional and mental well being? Oh,
Unknown Speaker 28:46
I want to start us off with and I’d love to hear Cecile. So again, at the level of my physicality, sometimes I might just rock like I might behave to to rock and especially if there’s an inner child trigger going on. That is a soothing exercise. That’s just one thing I’ll offer.
Unknown Speaker 29:10
Well, I totally feel you on the rocking thing because I do that too. And the other thing is that I intentionally give myself space not to think to just feel and sometimes that’s hard sometimes especially if it’s something around grief I don’t want to do it but I know if I don’t I won’t be able to function fully and so you know, I’ll just make myself just be still and I don’t I don’t talk to anybody I don’t have you know the TV on I don’t get my phone and a lot of times the rocking is in combination with that but I just breathe in feel what I feel so I intentionally Riley breathe, belly breathe instead of reading up here and just let myself feel what I feel even if I don’t want to feel it because I know if I don’t experience it then it’s shoved down and it’s going to come out later and I might not be able to control what that feels like or what it looks like at the time. I’ll be snap snap But it’s somebody in the restaurant or something like that, instead of just sitting with it for a minute,
Unknown Speaker 30:04
and I just feel like saying, God bless you. I mean, that’s like totally mastery level, you gotta, you gotta find a way not to get wrong, you got to find a way to not make it wrong. That whatever you’re feeling is, is your experience and that you can feel it. My other thing I would say is, if I can’t bear it, if even if it hurts, there’s a couple of people, I can just text just stated in two sentences. You know, and everyone knows, we all know like, this is not about fixing anything, you know, but it’s the share that I’m going through this kind of like the witnessing aspect that can help. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 30:42
yeah, witnessing is huge. Yeah. All right, Christine, what do you do? Yeah,
Christine Gautreaux 30:48
wow, yeah, um, well, when I’m doing it badly, I like last week, I cry online on Zoom, when I wouldn’t really recommend that I was in a safe space when it happened. But um, you know, I am a huge believer in hot Epsom salt baths for multiple reasons. But a lot of times when I’m feeling tender, or grief and loss, or when I’m having a lot of, I’ll go crawl in that bathtub and sit, you know, I do the quiet and the sitting part. But I like to be surrounded by water when I do. Water is one of my magic places. So yes, if I’m getting to where I’m too full, or it’s too much or too big, I tend to go to the water. And I had one of my Native American teachers teach me, Kim PVA with us. She’s with the Lumbee Tribe in North Carolina. She said you can take it to the trees. But you also want to make sure it’s a hardwood tree, they don’t want to it doesn’t want to be a set like a sock. You want to go to like an oak or a hardwood tree. And you can lean against the tree and give them your grief or you know that they can handle it. But it needs to be a bigger hardwood tree. So that was really good wisdom. Because, you know, like the two of y’all I’m very connected to nature. So if I can do it, where I’m in nature, I think that’s a good thing.
Unknown Speaker 32:13
That’s excellent. We had that conversation about this last week. And I was in a space where there weren’t any hardwood trees. But right when you were telling me this, the trees that were around, I knew that none of them could take what I what I was handling, and what I was handling was huge, you know, but they invited me to sit there were four smaller trees, they invited me to sit in the middle of them. And I felt like each one of them was taking a portion where none of them could have taken all of it. And so you know, I basically sat in the grass in the middle of these trees, and they all like helped me to process what had just happened.
Unknown Speaker 32:47
No, I’m glad for you. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, there’s this place in the woods near me that I kind of for me, like the trees are kind of in this interesting formation that they kind of feel like a labyrinth in and of itself. But in the middle, there’s not one spot, there’s two, and it actually looks like a male and a female tree, just the just the vibe I get from them. And what I’ll do is in addition to walking the labyrinth, I actually walk in an infinity sign in between the two trees.
Unknown Speaker 33:19
I felt you getting ready to say that. Beautiful, that’s beautiful.
Unknown Speaker 33:24
Yeah, you know, it’s so precious, because I do just want to activate this for everyone is that we’re not here alone, right? And we are held in the deepest cellular levels, the life force that animates us holds us. But there’s also higher dimensions of ourselves. And so you can ask for help at any time and ask for help. You can ask for courage, you can ask Can somebody call me and magically you’ll find you hearing a call you can ask for I mean tenderness to me is finding the way that you can just actually experience the thing that wants to come out compassionately, and with no judgment, you know, and so you can ask for all of that. And I think it’s a really important tool to be connected to.
Christine Gautreaux 34:19
I completely agree ammunition when you say compassion, one of the other things that comes up for me as our friend, Dr. Cynthia Phelps, who’s been a guest on the show, and she does self compassion, and one of the things she said is, you know, she teaches that we all suffer, all being suffer. And one of the things she does is a body thing where you just rub your arm, like you just kind of soothe yourself and especially if you’re by yourself, like you can give yourself a hug or you can just rub and soothe yourself and yeah, and I have gone to the I mean, it sounds so simple, but I have gone to that so many times when feelings get overwhelming or I’m in a place like maybe I’m visiting somebody At the hospital, or you know, I’m going through it that you can just rub on your own hand. Yeah, home yourself and be present with yourself,
Unknown Speaker 35:09
you know what all of this reminds me of is like. So my coaching was taught by a woman named Joanna Lindenbaum, who is amazing, and she’s in North Carolina highly recommend you finding her sacred depths coaching, but one of the key things she teaches is like, every single thing in the world wants to be seen, heard and loved. And that’s really true with our feelings and our emotions. And so you know, you can sue on the outside. But in other way, as soon as you give, what it is that’s rising in you attention, it’s, then it’s like, you guys can have a conversation, you and that feeling, and then it’s for you, you can also do it with sound, so you can simply tone into that emotion. And that’s a way of giving it loving attention. And then it’s gonna, it’s gonna speak back to you, because it’s going to shift some be like, oh, yeah, you know, I got my expression, you can, you can tone into the next energy that it shifts to. And anytime I’ve done that, you know, because I had a pretty significant separation issue for my family when I was very little at three. And that’s left a lot of, you know, emotional challenges. And so when I, I’m very prone to sadness, like sadness is a pretty constant accompaniment in my life on been doing. Anyway, it’s all a journey, but I just want to say that a lot of times when I experienced toning into my sadness, there’ll be so many shifts, but it’ll always, always go back to guilt not back, but it’ll always find its way to join. Mm hmm. So just that, that attention of like, you’re here, you’re here to love me too. I’m gonna love you back. It’ll always always take it a joy.
Unknown Speaker 36:59
What you’re describing is actually a form of shadow work. And I love the way you described it. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 37:05
But it doesn’t have to involve talking. I mean, I think Right. Right. Things about intervening.
Christine Gautreaux 37:13
Right? That again, Maneesha, it doesn’t have to involve talking, right. You know,
Unknown Speaker 37:19
I mean, there’s so much of what happens inside us that’s at the level of nonverbal and you know, what, God love it and been you can communicate with it non verbally. And, in fact, it’s simpler. Yeah, more authentic. And it’s so much less than our brains. And that’s why our body can help us because our bodies totally at that level. Yeah. Because
Unknown Speaker 37:41
everything you feel you really can’t put it to words and everything you experience, you really can’t put into words to describe it to yourself, much less somebody else.
Unknown Speaker 37:48
Yeah. And you know, there’s a way that if you have to put into words, you’re like, you’re like having to put that into your cerebral cortex and go there and your emotions, like, Excuse me, I’m just, I’m just here. I don’t know what you’re talking about up there with that brain thing, you know.
Christine Gautreaux 38:08
And so many times, I know y’all probably haven’t done this, but I have to own up I have, you know, so many times I use that brain not to access all those emotions. Like stuffing down, right, think about it. Right. Right, that and to make it a barrier to emotional mental wellness.
Unknown Speaker 38:34
I will admit I do it.
Christine Gautreaux 38:36
I think every human being does it. Right. Yeah. survival mechanism. And especially when we got stuff to do, like,
Unknown Speaker 38:44
right, right.
Unknown Speaker 38:46
You know, just getting back to that grounding thing. I think that’s one of the biggest reasons grounding helps me is because it keeps things simple, rather than things analytical in my mind. Yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 39:00
I love that y’all. I have so enjoyed this conversation today. I every week on women connected with some podcast we talk about, we do like a hashtag wisdom and action. So if you had one thing for your emotional and mental wellness this week that you would hashtag wisdom in action. What would it be?
Unknown Speaker 39:26
Go ahead? No, I was gonna say, I really like the way you describe the process of giving attention to the things even the things that are bothering you so that they can go ahead and transform into joy. So I’m going to hashtag shadow work and then I’m also going to hashtag find my joy. Yes,
Unknown Speaker 39:45
we are achieving the purpose of the book right. I mean, and I think for me, just breathing continues to breathe and grow. connects me to my joy. And so I’m gonna definitely hashtag you know, connect to joy, but I’m gonna hashtag you know, breathe for my joy. I think that’ll that’ll probably great.
Unknown Speaker 40:12
I like that. Yeah, yes.
Christine Gautreaux 40:15
Oh, yeah, I’m trying to think of my I mean, really I know this is cheesy to say, but mine would probably be hashtag inner play. And when I Interplay y’all know because we’ve inter played together, it brings that joy it brings that breath it brings that emotional and mental wellness. And I know we’re almost out of time but Maneesha right when you said that about the book, I’m like, we really want to talk about the book. So let’s talk real quick. Before we sign off on what you got coming out. Tell us about the book that I talked about in the intro.
Unknown Speaker 40:47
Yeah, so you know, I have been working on this book for a little good for like three years off and on. But um, this book is called, we move from our own joy on learning the language of our physicality. And what it really is, is, you know, it takes the reader from these eight, eight years where I was so miserable in my full time job, but that outside of work, I was experimenting in all of these different forms that were body based. And that there I call that section all awakening all wakening. Because there was just this, you know, we talk in Interplay about sneaky, deep, and I was like, wait a minute, what was that? You know, what was that? Where did that come from? And I was just tapping into this and hidden intelligence, and it was really present for me, you know. And so that leads to a series of things where I finally decided to take a sabbatical from that job. And I, it’s underneath that story, it’s really my story of finding belonging, or looking for belonging, because of my own childhood experiences, you know, very much feeling bereft, and feeling, you know, left out, and that was the baggage I took into, into this void space, where I didn’t, you know, I’d left the structure that I knew, and then it so while there’s this personal story, so those were the years where the, the form that came out to embrace me was interplay. And it was really me learning about who I was and how I was wired, as a person who listens with my whole body. And I learned and it shows people how I was able to turn to my body for with questions and, you know, receive guidance and how it helped make me from an anxious person into it just so much breaking my bubble of safety, getting me more into play, finding my voice, and, you know, really releasing me into freedom. Now, I know that when I belong to myself, you know, I move freely. That’s
Unknown Speaker 42:53
home. Yeah. I love that.
Christine Gautreaux 42:56
Oh, we can’t wait. And when it comes out, we’ll have you back. Maneesha and we’ll we’ll do some will connect the audience center how to find her book. And I’m just so excited for you, my friend
Unknown Speaker 43:08
for this body blessing of being here with both this was this was I can feel myself there’s so joyful.
Christine Gautreaux 43:18
for being with us today, it’s Oh, yes, a cat and we look forward to more my friends. Thank you. Oh, my goodness.
Unknown Speaker 43:28
Wow. Yeah, that was a lot, a little bit of time. Right. It was a lot but it was all good. Right?
Christine Gautreaux 43:35
What stuck out to you about emotional and mental wellness.
Unknown Speaker 43:40
Oh, my goodness. I love the the Well, I always love this the idea that you don’t have to put everything into words that you can have your emotions and your experiences without putting labels on them and you can process them without having to put words to it. right
Christine Gautreaux 43:58
in saying that you don’t have to articulate your experience to have had it. Mm hmm.
Unknown Speaker 44:03
Yeah, and I think I think that’s a huge thing for a lot of people. I mean, we’re so used to especially like when people talk about therapy, you got to describe it and you know, when you’re trying to tell other people how you feel you put it into words and sometimes you can’t even do that for yourself. So just the idea of you can have your experience without putting it into words is a big that’s a big thing.
Christine Gautreaux 44:25
Absolutely. Well and I really loved her big love alchemy and talking about like, sound vibration, and
Unknown Speaker 44:34
I know you love that sound therapy
Christine Gautreaux 44:41
part like so joyful. joyful. Well I am so grateful to you, my friend being able to be here and be a guest co host today. Oh we close tonight. I want to give a shout out to our sponsor, Shayla glow and You know Shannon is so good about talking about Shiloh but you and I both have experience in products so I’m gonna say Shayla
Unknown Speaker 45:09
works it works of that time when I was at a retreat with you guys and she did the the Shailaja with the oil and then the then the shea butter on top my skin was waiting for my skin went free. It wasn’t exactly ashy. But it wasn’t glowing. But afterwards it was glowing and it was soft. Oh my goodness. Yes, Shayla glow works,
Christine Gautreaux 45:31
right, the best advertising ever and for our listeners, I’m Shannon so generously gives us a discount code. So if you go to Shayla glow.com, you can put in wise five and get a discount on whatever you purchase for the website. Wow. Subscription, right
Unknown Speaker 45:47
is getting ready to ask if that applies to the subscription? I think
Christine Gautreaux 45:50
so but don’t Okay. Try it and come back and let us know. Right? And also if you know somebody a female in your community that is just kicking butt and taking names and is doing all those things. Shayla Glo every month honors a shea row in the Navy, and they honor them by sending them self care goodies. And Oh, awesome, right? So now somebody that you’re like, oh, they need a little extra love. They need a little extra. you nominate them. And so what you do is you email my shea row to Shayla glow.com. And that’s in our show notes. And your person may get picked that month. So I think it’s next week that we announce August Sharrow, so that’s coming up. So all right. All right, my friend. I can’t believe you’re already to this point. But here we are. You’ll we thank you for listening. Thank you for liking and subscribing. It really does help us and until next time, don’t forget be well be wise and the whole
Unknown Speaker 47:07
thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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