Ep129: Aligning Your Inner with Your Outer Life with Oliveyah Fisch

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What if the connection you're searching for begins by coming home to yourself? Aimee welcomes Oliveyah Fisch—bestselling author, master coach, and founder of the Be Human Medicine Community. 

She shares her journey of creating safe containers where people can drop the performative mask and practice real intimacy, vulnerability, authentic community, and honest reflection. 

Together, they explore why learning to be human medicine for ourselves and others is the essential skill set for navigating our increasingly uncertain world. 

Oliveyah takes us through:

• Why true success requires integrating spiritual intelligence

• Why receiving is as important as giving 

• How to create and participate in safe containers for honest sharing

• Why community mirrors are essential for personal growth

• How to navigate triggers, projections, and discomfort in group settings

And so much more!

Guest Bio:

Oliveyah Fisch is a bestselling author, master coach, and the founder of Be Human Medicine and the Spiritual Heartbeat Movement. With over 20 years of experience blending science, spirituality, and somatic wisdom, she empowers individuals and organizations to awaken their joy, embody their truth, and lead from love. Her new book, Spiritual Heartbeat, invites readers to integrate divine intelligence into daily life and live with clarity, power, and spiritual alignment. 

Connect with Oliveyah Fisch:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliveyahfisch/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oliveyahfisch/?hl=en 

Website: https://www.oliveyahfisch.com/ 

Learn more about her book, Spiritual Heartbeat: https://www.oliveyahfisch.com/spiritualheartbeat 

Connect with Aimee:

Instagram: @aimeetakaya 

Facebook: Aimee Takaya 

Learn more about Aimee Takaya, Hanna Somatic Education, and The Radiance Program at⁠⁠ https://www.freeyoursoma.com/ 

LISTEN WHILE READING!

A: Hey there, listener. Welcome back to the podcast. Aimee Takaya here. Have you been feeling isolated and separate from the other humans living on this planet?

Maybe we have that connection through our phones or that connection we think is connection through our phones, but many of us are craving real intimacy and real human contact, especially post pandemic world where we've been pushed online into Zoom meeting after Zoom meeting. And so, many people are wanting that closeness again, not just with other people, but with themselves.

Today I'd like you to stay tuned for an incredible conversation with Oliveyah Fisch, a bestselling author, master coach, and founder of the Be Human Medicine Community. She's going to share about her book, Spiritual Heartbeat and the Practices Within, so that you can start blending your intuitive life with your actual outward world experiences and create that sense of belonging for yourself in your body in the world with other people. So please stay tuned.

Intro: Every day, there is a forgetting. And every moment there is the possibility of remembering, remembering who you truly are, awakening to your body, to the inner world, to the experience of being alive. Here is where you find the beauty, the joy. And here is where you free your soma. I'm your host, Aimee Takaya. I'm here to help you move from pain to power, from tension to expansion, and ultimately from fear to love.

A: Hi, Oliveyah. So nice to meet you.

O: Hi, Aimee. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you for doing the work that you do in the world. It's so important.

A: Oh, thank you. Yeah. I love I love having a podcast because it's a way I get to meet amazing humans who are up to amazing things and we get to share what we're up to. And people get to witness this conversation and maybe learn something today about their own lives and their bodies through listening to us share, right? And I'm really excited to hear about what you're up to because we were talking right before we hit record.

You said that you're feeling very inspired by your community at this time, by the things that you've created that are now kind of giving back to you in a way that you're getting to create spaces that you need as a human. And that's just this kind of like nurturing that is kind of never ending. It's like a reciprocity. What we're giving is also coming back to us, right?

O: Yeah, I think that, you know, I've been calling this year my year of receiving as I'm practicing myself, learning how to receive. And knowing that, especially as business owners, it's so easy. And even as women, it's very easy to just be the caregiver, be the coach, be the host of the podcast, and just be kind of really focusing on the output because that is what society will usually validate as success, like a job well done. How much can you give to somebody else, and what impact can you be making?

But what I have found is that, that will lead to burnout pretty quickly. And what really is important is what I call making sure the river is flowing, flowing both ways. You know, you need that yin and yang.

You need that ability to, yes, go ahead and give your gifts to the world, but also learn how to receive and feel safe in receiving just as much as you would feel great about you know doing a good job out there in the world. And so part of what I've recognized is that the more I've kind of opened my hand up, really to receiving and allowing people to give to me, it's been really nurturing.

And then, of course, creating that ecosystem within everything that I'm building within my own business. So it is a time that people are very lonely. People are feeling really isolated. People are hungry for a warm body to see them, to love them, to say, like, I get it. I've been there too. You're not alone.

And it seems like we are all starving for this. Yet we need safe environments to be created, you know, containers that feel like that depth of realness about really what it is to be a human being can be expressed in a safe space. And so I do my best to create these containers.

We have the core men's group and the women's core group, as well as the Be Human Medicine community as well. And I'm essentially making these containers that I want to be a part of as well that feel me, you know?

A: Yeah, 100%. I I I love how you describe that as an ecosystem because it really is, as you're sort of designing and then experimenting with what is going to meet the needs of your clients, you're also kind of simultaneously experimenting with what is going to be fulfilling to you, right? As the practitioner, what is going to leave you feeling like your cup is full.

And a lot of times, in my experience, that's being a participant as well as a leader that you're that you're giving people time to share, you know, that the airspace is kind of being kind of shared by everybody. Like I tell my people that too, like when I'm running a retreat or something, my favorite part is listening to what you have to say.

My favorite part is listening to your shares, your insights, your wisdom and making space for that, because it's a gift to me and everybody in the room when we're able to open up like this, right?

So I love what you're describing. I want to dive in a little bit more into you first, kind of to orient our listeners to, you know, how you ended up creating these spaces, how you ended up, you know, writing this book, you know, what's your background? Where did you start on this somatic spiritual journey?

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O: Yeah. So thank you for that space to share a little bit about myself. I've been in this industry for over 15 years, doing coaching to in some capacity. So I started out working with athletes to get them ready for game day spiritually, mentally, physically, emotionally.

They already had their coach for their sport or their event, but I was there to make sure that they were going to be able to show up with, show up as their best self, essentially. And I love being able to support people.

The main thread, no matter who the client is, you know, I've moved from working with athletes to then working with the general public and fitness and health and lifestyle to more executive and CEO work and then moving to being able to support couples and family dynamics and things like that. So my clientele has just expanded to different types of clients, you know, just different types of things that they're working on.

But what I have found is that the main thread is just anybody who is wanting and knowing that there's a really beautiful version of themselves living inside them and they're just trying to access that, that human potential, that becoming, then I want to work with them. It's so exciting. It's it's when they're hungry for like, yes, there's something I'm I can access and I don't know how to, it's really fun to be able to work with that client.

So whether they're trying to solve for a sport or their leadership or growing their company, um, getting their making sure that their team is elevating with the company and all the changes that are happening on the end of in the industry, whether it's a couple wanting to make their life really rich and warm and loving at a new stage in life, um, having better relationships with their children, whatever it is, it's just an opportunity to step into our human potential.

And what I have found it is always it comes back to alignment because when you're when you're thinking one thing, feeling something else, and then doing something else, and then life is asking you something else, and it's all discombobulated and chaotic, there's no alignment. So, really what I'm working with my clients on is just making sure all of those things are lined up.

So what they say, what they feel, what they're thinking, and what life is also asking them for is in alignment. And the piece of the spiritual heartbeat book that I wrote, um, it's called Spiritual Heartbeat, the ultimate requirement for success. Essentially, what I was recognizing is I had the chance to work with high profile individuals, the millionaires and billionaires of the world.

And I wanted to make what I'm teaching with them on a one-on-one in a one-on-one container accessible to everybody, essentially. And I was recognizing there are these themes that come up. And if people are have reached a certain amount of success in their life, they're not worried about where they're gonna sleep, eat, and like they're not worried about if their car breaks down, they can pay for the bill.

You know, there's a certain amount of success because money is important in our society that we need to reach. But once those basic needs are pretty much set, you're not too worried about where you're going to find comfort.

Okay. If you've solved for comfort already, then there's a new equation for success that has to be integrated. And what I have found is that really it's the integration of spiritual intelligence. So it's not just about what you're doing. It's actually who you are being while you're doing it. And so maybe you can be super zen in your yoga class or your Pilates workout, but then you leave and you're just like, just like, you know, you know, chit-chat, chit chat is just like in your head and it's super stressful and you're overwhelmed.

And then you start snapping at your kid and your means of your husband and whatever happens, right? And what I have found is that people can do it in these safe, you know, quiet containers, but they're not knowing how to integrate it into what they are actually wanting to create, what what's actually important to them.

So that the best version of themselves in a dark room by themselves or you know, chanting with 20 people they don't know, right? And so we we have to be able to integrate this everywhere. So this is something that I am on a journey doing. My work is not separate from me.

And I'm very clear with clear with my clients about that. Like I am on this journey with you. Um, I can really support you to be your clear eyes. But really, what I'm doing is teaching you the skill set to see clearly. And that is the work that I'm really passionate about that I've been doing for the last, I it's almost been 20 years now. Wow.

A: Yeah. And then, you know, what you're describing too is a kind of congruency where the version of you that you know is there that shows up in that yoga class or in, you know, on that retreat or whatever is also the you that shows up in your daily life with the little petty annoyances and the challenges.

And you know, I want to go back to something you said, which was the way that our next tier of success involves integrating our spiritual intelligence. And another way that might be said is maybe intuition, because when we are in survival mode, that is so much louder in our body than intuition. Intuition is a soft, quiet sensation often, and it's not gonna scream at you. And so you can't really be in like a full survival panic mode and hear that soft, quiet voice of your intuition.

I mean, you can, but it's much, much harder. And so, I mean, I've I've kind of settled into this in my own kind of niche, which is that, you know, the kind of work that I'm doing, and it sounds like the kind of work you're doing is more refined in terms of this is not the this is not the work that people in crisis are capable of.

They have to be able to have, like you said, that certain level of comfort, you know, if you talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, like those baseline needs are met, and then now the integration, now the listening to the soft, quiet sensation and the refining and of those more sophisticated skills, right? So that they can actually be that full potential, right? Again, not easy to get there when you're still struggling to, you know, make ends meet and you're in survival mode all the time. There's other priorities that are going to take over. It's just physiological, right?

O: Um, yes, I would agree to that to a certain extent. But even the high profile people and business owners and CEOs I've worked with, there have been times where their whole world is crashing down on them, right? Like they're about to, you know, the business didn't work, or they got really bad press and they have to figure out what they're gonna do with deal with that. Like they're starting from zero essentially in that moment.

And so it's, and maybe they're not worried about, you know, paying their mortgage, but sometimes they are, you know. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think that you, you know, we think of success as like, okay, well, once you went reached a certain point, you'll you'll always just keep, you know, soaring financially or something, or or have a, you know, you have this kind of audience, and that means next year you're gonna have a higher audience or whatever you're measuring for your metrics of success. So I think that actually, yes, it is not easy to access these intuitive qualities in a crisis.

But part of what I'm saying is actually we're gonna need to learn how to access it no matter what, because we are going through time, a time in our society right now where there are so many unknowns. It's going, it's very wobbly.

The whole collective is so wobbly. It's like everything's shaking like this, and we have to learn how to be steady. We have to be the mountain in the storm. And the people that will do well in the future will be the ones that know how to feel very resilient in the wobble, essentially. And the building the skill set to say all of these external comforts actually are fake. They're false securities, essentially. Right.

A: There's nothing guaranteed. It could all end in a fire tomorrow, right?

O: Exactly. And if you're relying on the external to satisfy the internal, you will not actually reach fulfillment that you're looking for. You know, you can keep going to the next mountain and the next mountain and the next mountain and chasing the next thing, but you're actually never feel like you ever arrived. Okay.

So that's one version. Or something will happen. Life will come for you eventually, even if it's not about money, somebody's gonna get sick and someone that you love is gonna die. You're gonna get sick and you're gonna be looking in the mirror and having to face your own mortality, right?

Even if we just think about life cycles, right? So something is going to shake you. And do you have the skill set to know how to listen to that voice that doesn't go away, whether you have a million dollars in the bank or a thousand dollars in the bank.

Okay. So I don't know if so much it has to do with you have to reach a level of comfort. It's just who I tend to talk to, you know, that's just who tends to come into my space.

A: And comfort is a relative thing because we all come from different baselines, right? So what, you know, what I find to be a feeling, like a sense of security. If someone else is was in my position, they would not feel secure, right? And and as you said, a lot of it is very no, I think false feels like it feels like harsh. I feel like it is true to a certain degree, but it's so changeable, it's so ephemeral.

It's it's like here and gone. It's it's like, like you said, we could just have it all sort of shift and not be this way tomorrow. And do we have the skill set? And I really like what you said about just the uh resiliency that is really going to be required of us. And we can add to that also, I think collaboration and connection with others, which is kind of bringing us back around to your communities and the things that you're building that, you know.

I was talking with someone about this earlier today, the kind of group retreat or the online self-development course, like many of us may think of these things as more like luxury items or you know, having a coach or having like, you know, a spiritual community, it's like not like a required thing, like it's like expendable.

Like if you were having to cut something on your budget, it might be one of these things. But what I'm discovering as being someone like you who's creating these kind of communities is that there are people who are going to discover that this is actually an essential for them.

This is actually part of what keeps them healthy and well on all levels is having that community and that connection and that safe space with others that they may not be having access to, right, in their everyday life. And it's this kind of connection and community that's going to also be part of our resiliency. Are we resourced, not just financially or you know, our comforts and all that, but are we resourced internally and with other people who are also resourced internally?

O: Yeah, we are all relational beings, and I think that there's been a forgetting of that, and we get to remember that again. And so anytime we can be in containers where we are not, yes, it's a place for accountability and support and to um maybe grow and expand and evolve in different ways and have like-minded people around you, and all of that is important.

I will also point out though, that what I see to be really important is for having safe containers for for someone to show you how you're being and having honesty and transparency and being able to have this mirror of what's working and what's maybe not working as well. And when you can create these safe containers for people to know how to regulate their nervous system, even when they're kind of faced with the reality of, oh, I'm not a perfect being, you know, you get to actually have some really cool growth that might not happen.

Well, in my opinion, will not happen without those mirrors. And when you can do that and you can teach that in a container in a safe space, then my hope is then they go they go bring that to how they talk to their kids and how they're creating their home and their friend groups. So it's not just in the container, right?

But it's actually everywhere. This the skill set is applied everywhere. It doesn't have to just be here. So I'll give you an example. There's an opportunity to have in maybe safe containers, you're sharing something with a buddy or something, or someone you meet on retreat or in a coaching container or something like that in a group.

And you're saying, hey, what what do you see that I don't see? Right? Or something like that can be set up after a share. Um, it's called one of those exercises called like, what's my blind spot kind of a thing, or you know, or is there anything that um you want to reflect back to me, right? How can we bring that kind of conversation to our children?

You know, how can we bring that conversation to our partners and say, hey, this is what uh what's got what's going on for me. Um, what are you seeing that I'm not seeing? Or here's how I'm trying to love you this month. Is it working?

You know, what are you seeing that I'm not seeing? We can apply these same things to every everywhere, and we we get to, we have to, so that we can recognize that yes, we are independent beings on this planet and self is important, but it's also important to recognize that we live in a we society. We live in, we we care about the we, we're relational beings.

And when it's very eye-centric, it doesn't usually work. It usually doesn't, when I say it doesn't work, it doesn't lead to satisfaction, it doesn't lead to happiness and joy and a liveness that people are actually wanting. Because it seems like, well, as long as I take care of myself and I pour into me and I got my money and I did what I was supposed to do, you know, I'm a good girl, I'm a good boy, I did all the right things, it should work. But it's actually not that simple. It's like, how are you being in in relation to everything else that's around you is also very important.

A: Yeah, no, it it's uh it's those mirrors again. If we, if we're open to seeing the world around us is showing us how we're being, right? Our relationships with our kids or with our family. I got a question though about this kind of, you know, within the context of like a retreat or a group, and you invite people to give this feedback to each other.

I think it's a really potentially beautiful thing. And my question would be like, how would you kind of handle other people's projections? Because sometimes people see stuff that's not really true.

They see stuff that's actually their own projection, right? And I actually am I'm kind of asking also for myself because I've run retreats where there's been conflict between individuals and they really believed that this person is like this and they're doing this, and we can, you know, kind of see together, oh, well, this is actually a little bit of a projection.

This more has to do with you than it has to do with that person. So I'm just really curious, like in terms of create someone who's creating these containers, like how do you sort of navigate the world of projection? Yeah.

O: Well, there's a process that first is important because you want to set up agreements in groups pretty early on, if not the first thing you do. And so once you have a set of agreements that will provide for safety and will provide for enough of an education as well about what is a projection. Yes, you know, are you sharing that because of your ego, or are you sharing that to actually serve in this moment, right?

Because you can so someone says something and people have an opinion about something or want to share something, but to recognize that we have to take that pause to recognize where it's coming from. So this is coming back to it. It is important what we're doing, but just as important is how we are being while we're doing it, right?

So, where is it coming from? So, part of how I do this with my groups is to give them enough skill set teaching and education about how to hold space for people. I call this how are you going to be human medicine to other people?

Okay. I'm teaching people how to be human medicine to themselves. I'm teaching people how to be human medicine to other people. So being able to have some agreements to make sure that it doesn't get too sloppy, as I call it, okay, um, and that we're not doing harm anywhere.

And then also to give people enough skill sets so that they can learn when they are being triggered by somebody, when they are in projection, and then teaching people to regulate their nervous system enough so that they can actually call themselves out on that when that's happening without shame or guilt, like, oh, you know, I'm totally in my ego right now.

Take this or leave this because I've had a hard day, you know. So to kind of frame things in a way where you don't have to be perfect. It could be projection and naming that, and then also allowing the other person that's listening to know how to take care of themselves and be discerning about what they take and what they don't take as well.

Because people in the world, you know, there's nothing better than a pregnant woman getting a million advice from all the people on the planet, right? You you you become pregnant and all of a sudden everyone thinks they have the opportunity to tell you how to be, how to live, how to take care of your baby and how to take care of you, right?

I mean, literally everybody will tell you that. And so I remember when I was pregnant, it just was such a lesson on discernment. Okay, such a lesson on, oh, I'm gonna take that, I'm gonna leave that.

She, I'm gonna just put that over there, right? And being able to do that in real time in conversations is a really important skill. Of course, we can practice this in the safe containers, but then bringing that out, like I said, to friend groups, to your partners, to your teams, all of that matters too, which is why the skill set is the same.

So when I'm going in to do an on-site for a team for a big company, oftentimes it looks like the same as what I'm doing in these circles with women or what I'm doing with my kid at home. Like it's not actually that different. It's just the context is a little bit different. Beautiful.

A: I love that. I love that you have an education around this that sort of precedes the like activity, right? And I think that, you know, one thing that is also just super helpful for people in this situation to know is that if something someone says doesn't land for you, it can be a beautiful contrast for you to discover what does land for you or what is true for you when you hear something that's not true.

So even those projections, right, have the potential to have medicine in them, if we're able to, like you said, regulate our nervous systems enough to, you know, come back to ourselves out of the triggered energy or out of the reactive energy, right?

O: Yeah, it's really important. It's a really important skill set both ways, right? Because it's and this is this is a little bit what's actually been triggering me in spaces, if I can be honest with you, is is this over emphasis on making sure everybody's comfortable all the time. I actually don't know if that's helpful to anybody. It's like making sure you're overly PC or overly like attending to every single thing that might be happening ever in the world. And the world doesn't work like that.

A: That's just how it's just impossible because somebody you can't really control it. It's like trying to control how somebody else feels. If they feel uncomfortable, if they feel emotional and irritated and like, you know, it's sort of invalidating to them to then try to like dance around and make it all okay as fast as possible, or tell them that they should, you know, that oh, this is safe.

You don't have to feel that way because you're safe here. It's like, well, they do feel that way. So why are we fighting reality, right? I can hear what you're saying. It's like that that is kind of not really possible for us to always have a safe space, right?

O: Yeah, because it will one thing that's safe for me is not going to be the same thing that's safe for you, right? Yeah. And so trying to make everybody comfortable all the time, I think it's a nice idea.

And we can always bring compassion and kindness absolutely first into anything as leaders we're setting up, or you know, even as participants setting up and contributing to. But I think the skill set that actually needs more wraps on, I call it, okay, more muscle building here is on how do I deal with a trigger, you know?

A: Yeah, or rupture of some kind, right?

O: Or or conflict, yes, or rupture, or something that doesn't feel good, or being just uncomfortable. How am I gonna am I can I deal with the feeling of I'm not comfortable? And then what do I do in that moment? How do I take care of myself? How do I regulate? How do I set a boundary? How do I have a request and an ask? And how do I navigate that in a grounded way? And so I think that there gets to be for people who are setting up spaces and containers and safe spaces.

Yes, we want to make sure we're leaning into kindness, compassion, do our best to make it accessible for as many people as possible. But at the end of the day, you're going to be the leader that you most likely have needed in the past. And that's going to be a particular flavor.

Okay. You can't be all the flavors at the same time. And it dilutes it, it dilutes it for people. Um, and we get to actually just trust that people will find the right containers for what they're looking for and be okay with that as well. So, yes, there is a certain amount of education I like to give to my groups before they're doing this, but just some simple, it doesn't actually take that much.

Just following a couple of agreements make a big difference of just like presence, attuned reflection, um, knowing that you're gonna be curious and not, you know, the know it all in the room, and really just giving feedback only by requests. Like these, these just these four simple things make a huge difference in creating safe spaces for people to go a little bit deeper than that surface level share. Right.

A: Yeah. One thing I kind of would will talk about because I, you know, you're probably the same way. You have all these very capable people, maybe who are coaches and therapists or you know, people who are helpers in the world is another way to put it.

I tell them, like, here's a space for you to be helpful to each other, but you're not here to fix each other. You're not here to, you know, kind of be the coach for the other person. You're here to be humans together and to practice that instead of kind of being in your, you know, in your coaching kind of hat.

You know what I mean? Like there's a certain level of your skill set that's just gonna naturally come forward when you're a helpful person. But how do you also kind of understand that your role within this structure is to be a human with these people first? And it sounds like that's that's a big part of what you do.

I mean, it's called the be human medicine, right? So I love this idea because you know, we have had this structure in society, and I understand why it comes down to this idea of safety and you know, uh accountability and all of this and people properly trained, blah, blah, blah. That, you know, who we go to in life when we have to have space held for us is a therapist, is a doctor, is uh, you know, coach, is a licensed professional, right?

But what kind of world would it be if it could be just humans holding space for each other, right? That it could be your cousin or your sister or your neighbor who knows how to be with you through something hard, and that it doesn't have to be all compartmentalized, and these are the people who are safe to be with, and these are the people who I don't tell my truth to, right? Exactly.

O: Oh my gosh, I'm just so happy right now you're saying that because it makes me like, let's just stay on that for like as long as possible. This is essential. This is my passion. It's like this is the gap.

Yes. Even if I'm very resourced, I might see my therapist what once a week, you know, and then maybe I have a coach and maybe I see them once a week, and maybe I have an acupuncture, so then I see them once a week, and maybe I have a massage therapist, and that's what four? Okay, let's say I'm really resourced and all those things are in place.

Like I got my support team. That's four hours out of the whole week. What are you gonna do for the rest of the time? Right? What are we up to here? Are we just gonna just be a mess and in chaos the rest of the time and taking pills to sleep and getting caffeine to wake up and like constantly our nervous systems are just going crazy until we can.

A: I mean, I'd say that's that's most people, right? That's that's how most people operate, right?

O: Numbing on our phone to fall asleep and then jacking ourselves up to get the job done. Like that is not a life. That is that isn't that is not what people are actually wanting.

It's not satisfying. And so this is actually what has to happen is we all have to learn how to be human medicine for ourselves and others. That is where we are going.

Because yes, we can have that all of those things in place. I think that my hope is that more people will come become coaches. Actually, I know there's this big wave of people becoming coaches, and everyone's like, oh, it's saturated, everyone's a coach. I'm like, no, no, no, we need more coaches for sure. We need more people trained to do this so that it just becomes the norm. Right.

A: Yeah, it changes the culture, it changes the culture over time. Exactly.

O: That is my hope. That is what I do my best to teach in the spaces I teach in. I mean, I was even doing this when I was a personal trainer, you know, it was not satisfying for me to have a client and come into the gym and come into my boot camps or come into my space without teaching them about programming for themselves if they go on vacation, without teaching them why I'm having them do a lunge right now, right?

So the opportunity is to not just do the thing, not just do the exercise, but know how to do the exercise, even if your personal trainer is sick and has a baby, right?

A: Right, that it's integrated into your nervous system and into your reality. Exactly.

O: You can't just do a squat if you have a squat rack in the gym that you know. You have to be able to work your legs and your glutes and your hamstrings and your quadriceps, no matter what.

No, it no matter what. If you're traveling for a week or if you're not you move into a different city and you're at a new gym. So it's the same in my mind, it's the same as when I was doing personal training and fitness and health lifestyle health and things. It's just how can we actually, if you're coming to me and saying, hey, I want you to coach me, I'm like, great, I'm gonna teach you how to become your own coach.

And I'm gonna I'm going to give you the opportunity to have that be a norm in your life within your family and have language to to use to actually make me obsolete because you live on the other side of the world. What is what we don't need, we don't need to be in it doesn't, if I'm your best friend, but you don't have your best friend doing what I'm doing with you, then it doesn't actually create lasting change. It's just a nice time for a short amount of time. And that's not enough anymore. It's not empowering. Yeah.

A: It's not empowering to just have to go to Olivia every time that I have a problem and not know how to deal with it when you're not there, right? It's it's so I completely understand what you're saying. My model for, you know, the business I run is that I'm teaching you how to be your own somatic like therapist or your own somatic movement educator for your own body for your individual needs, you know. And I also started this interesting in like a more kind of fitness oriented world, which is interesting just to hear how so many of the things that you do now are very much the same as what you were doing before.

You know, my model was bikram yoga, and it was like holding people through like a very intense experience. And that comes up even within the somatic work that I do now. People have memories or things come up.

And that time that I spent, you know, teaching 90 minute classes in a hot room, having that resilience, right, in my nervous system to stay calm and you know, aware and taking them through, you know, with a somewhat triggering or difficult experience with like some kind of rhythm and some kind of grounded energy, you know, it's just amazing to see how, you know, and I think this ties in with kind of the bigger picture of what we're talking about, every part of you as a human and everything that you've ever done before already in your career comes into each one of these containers.

And that's the same for every single person who's in these containers. Every part of their journey and every part of their, you know, beingness and everything they've done before has the potential to become their wisdom, right? When their full human is allowed to be there. The messiness, including the ego, including all the things, right? Yeah.

O: And if we can get really skillful about anything that arises for any part, any pattern, any memory, any, you know, thought, behavior, habit, whatever aspect arises within us or something that comes into our space, if we are knowing how to collaborate with it, if we're knowing how to be with it, it's very empowering. You know, then you're not worried about, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen to the world?

You're just like, well, I don't have to trust the world. I just know I can trust myself. I I know I can be with what comes up inside of me and what comes up outside of me, and I can meet it and collaborate with it in a in an honest way. I can I don't have to be in conflict with it. I don't have to completely let it capture me and be all of the story of my life. There's wisdom here too, you know.

Yeah. And that piece there to be able to access your whatever we want to call it, your intuition, wisdom, your ability to connect with something bigger than you, your connecting with your spill spiritual intelligence, whatever that language we want to use, it's all the same, really.

It's your ability to access something inside of you that is if we can treat it like a muscle, if we can treat it like, oh, every every time I tune in to my intuition, every time I tune into wisdom, every time I tune into my spiritual self, that muscle gets stronger. And it's like going to the gym and doing some reps and your legs get stronger.

And then the more that you do that, you're not worried if the legs are gonna catch you when you trip on the stairs. It just, you know, you're strong, you can walk down the stairs. And so it's the same with wisdom, it's the same with our intuition.

The more you're able to tune into it, the more you make that time and space to check in and not be outsourcing that power to other people or to other things, it gets stronger. And then no matter what is happening around you, you have that to guide you. That is that is my hope for people. And it's already pretty scary in the world. You know, there's so many things to be worried about.

And when we don't have access to that wisdom, it just becomes terrifying and so and debilitating. And we either then overfunction or we go into apathy and paralysis and sometimes just swinging from one to the other. So my hope is to really share how the what I think is a skill set to access that internal voice, that wisdom, that intuition and integrate that spiritual intelligence into the life, into the life that you want to create. Beautiful.

A: Yeah, tell us a little bit more about how these containers work. Because you mentioned having a women's container and a men's container, and you have a co ed container. What do you think is the value of kind of having some different spaces for men versus women versus co ed?

O: Yeah, that's a great question. And it's something that I haven't taken, you know, I've done that very intentionally, I'll say over the years, because I used to have everybody together. And what I recognize is that, and this is gonna sound maybe unnecessary, unnecessary to share, but this is just my perspective, and people can take it or leave it. You know, women actually show up pretty well when men are in the room, but men don't show up honestly when women are in the room as much.

A: As much include you, though, Are you running the group? Yeah.

O: And so what I found too is that if I am the only facilitator in a men's group, it actually works okay. Because it works better if there's another male facilitator as well. That's what I was thinking. Yeah. So I have for the men's group, uh, my brother and I are doing this together. So for the men's group, that's helpful. And I think that men do show up well with me. And because I'm I can do, you know, I can hold space for people.

A: And maybe these are people you have prior relationships with who are in these groups. They may be people who've already worked with you one on one, maybe or no.

O: Oh, it doesn't matter. People, people are people, it's great. I think that what happens is when there are people that are sharing. When I when I say that men um don't show up as well, it's not that they're not showing up, they are. It's just that they're not showing up as vulnerable as they maybe would because they're afraid to offend somebody, essentially. And they're not just saying what they need to say. But because I'm the I if I'm the leader, it actually works because they're not worried about offending me, you know.

A: They know you're there to be to be helpful for them.

O: Yes, right. But if someone's just a passive listener, um, but I have felt like it's been very helpful to facilitate with another man. So that's great that my brother's there. But I don't know if it's actually necessary. It's more of the passive consumer of like who's in the group and the fear that comes up around feeling weak, vulnerable, having something to share that maybe a female body would be um triggered by being triggered by.

So they don't. And so I found that there's just a lot more honesty when it's separate. I would say this is the benefit to the men more than the women. I guess that's what I'm trying to say. I feel like women will just do whatever, it doesn't matter what's in the room. Um, they show up well regardless, because they're just more used to doing this.

A: You're more used to feeling vulnerable. Yep.

O: And like, hey, this is just me today, you know, they they they're used to chatting with their girlfriends maybe about it or something. So I feel like it doesn't matter as much, but it still provides a safe space, I think, for women to have their own circles.

And so what I have found is splitting them up and then also giving them the opportunity to come together has been the best way for me to do this for now. And maybe I'll change my mind. But I'm really liking this way that I've built this out the last couple of years. And it's providing for a lot more depth and camaraderie that I didn't expect. So it's been working well.

A: Yeah, wow. Very cool. I appreciate your answer to that question. I think that I really see what you're saying. There's also kind of this idea out there that like, you know, what men often need in order to heal parts of themselves is the reflection, the kind reflection of other men. They get that from women. They often have too much of that, even from women, right?

Too much feedback and too much help or too much mothering or whatever we want to say. And but often for men, what's missing is that sense of like the masculine energy that accepts them, that sees them, that acknowledges them, right? Mm-hmm.

O: Yeah. And I think that that's been really that's what's been most surprising to see as working is like what you're naming here, is that for another man to pour his heart out of the thing that he's most shameful of, and then for someone else to be like, yeah, I get that, me too.

Like, and I love you just the same, you know, like I get it. And I think that part of what my role is sometimes in that group is to just be there and be like, yeah, they're right, you know, as like the divine feminine in the room, just being like, yeah, that's true too, you know, like you like, yes, this can happen right now. You can receive right now.

A: Yeah, just being that witness, right?

O: Just being that witness, yeah. And so I think that that is been really an interesting dynamic I didn't see unfolding by breaking that up a little bit. And it's been really wonderful to create ways for people to get to know each other. And so anything that we can do as facilitators to make that more, it's not about me teaching.

It's about no, them teaching each other and them getting to know each other and helping them, them helping each other out, removing me as much as possible from the equation in a way is really important as well, at least for what I recognize that is helpful for my businesses that the containers I run.

A: Yeah, well, it's right back into that idea of creating people who are empowered and independent and truly connected, and that you don't have to be, you know, that glue that holds them together that they can kind of stand on their own and they can learn how to take these skills into their lives.

So that seems right on target. So thank you so much for kind of sharing with us the inner workings of these things. If someone's feeling really called and wants to learn more about your groups or about your book and all of that, where can they find more information?

O: Yeah, so they can find all of this at oliviafish.com. That's just my website. Happy to share with anybody who's listening, the 14-day free trial to the Be Human Medicine community. You can find that link on my website. Then my book is out now, which is wonderful.

It came out late last year. And it's called the The Last Book I Wrote is called Spiritual Heartbeat, The Ultimate Requirement for Success. And you can find it where, you know, anywhere where you would buy a book online or in a bookstore. And yeah, please share it.

You can also listen to it on Spotify. And so you can kind of look at different chapters. You don't have to read the whole thing. But essentially, I'm breaking this down into seven spiritual principles. So, ones like radical living or intuitive living or empowered living, authentic living. So if there's just a section, you're you can know intuitively, like, oh, I just have a hard time, you know, taking care of myself. Maybe you'll listen to that empowered living uh session of the book that I that I read to you.

So people have been enjoying the audio version to just give them that little dose that they need. So I would have them go there. And then of course, they can listen to the interviews I do as well on my podcast, Be Human Medicine. There's just guest experts that come in and we do it in real time. They teach me something in real time, and then guests can practice in real time with the teachings. So that's also sometimes helpful as well when you're not needing to do a whole course, you know, online or something.

So yeah. So that I would maybe point them to those places. And of course, I do my one-on-one work as well. Um, those tend to get booked up a little faster, but people can always reach out to me. I'm very generous with my time. And it's if it's a fit, I'm always happy to connect. Beautiful.

A: Yeah. Well, everyone who's listening right now, check out Oliveyah's website, check out her book, uh, take advantage of some of those little freebies and things that she offered. They sound very helpful.

And hopefully, you've taken away from this conversation the importance of connection and the importance of skill building in your life, because the world is gonna keep going the way that it's going, and we need to create systems, structures, connection now that our bodies are going to remember later, our bodies are gonna have access to later. So thank you again for this conversation. It's just been a pleasure to speak with you.

O: Yeah, it's been so wonderful, Aimee. I'll say one more thing I can share with the group. If it's okay while you were talking, I was thinking, you know, what can I give these people who might be listening? And one of the things I created was called the spiritual heartbeat assessment. And I'll send that link.

I'll have my team send you the link and it's free. And I we did this research-based assessment with professors at Brown University. And if people take this assessment and they really just take a moment to be still and they think about the thing that is most challenging in their life, okay. You just kind of sit with what is the thing that is um that maybe you have an opportunity to step into a challenge or an issue. And you think about that, and then you take this assessment.

It takes maybe I don't know, five minutes, ten minutes, depending on how quickly you can answer things. You will you will then be able to find, oh, this is a spiritual principle that I'm not applying to my everyday life. That if I did, I can actually make and manifest and co-create what I'm trying to create here in a different way. So that might be also just a useful tool. I'm happy to share that link with you as well. Awesome.

A: Yes, thank you. Check it out in the show notes, everybody. And please reach out with any thoughts or questions. I love having this be a conversation with you, the listener, as you listened to our incredible conversation today. Thank you.

A: Hey there, friend. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I would love to hear your thoughts. Follow me on Instagram @AimeeTakaya and send me a DM about this episode. I'd like to thank you for being part of the somatic revolution. And if you'd like to support the podcast and help more people learn about somatics, consider leaving a review or a rating.

And finally, if you'd like to have the experience of relief in your tight hips or back and learn to understand what your body is really saying to you, visit youcanfreeyoursoma.com. I can't wait to share with you what is truly possible. Bye for now!